Quotes by Anatole France

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Any book has as many different copies as there are readers...

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The only lasting works are the works of circumstance. And, to be fair, there are no works of circumstance either, because they all also depend on how they were created. It is impossible to love them with intelligent love unless we know the time, place, and circumstances of their origin.

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It's hard to admire something without some illusion, and those who understand a masterpiece create it in themselves once more. The same works are reflected in a special way in the souls who contemplate them. Each human generation seeks a new emotion in front of the works of the old masters.

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The poet: ... an evocator. When we understand him, we are as much poets as he.

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The pleasure produced by a work is the only measure of its merits.

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There is no poetry except in the desire for the impossible or in the regret for the irreparable.

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Poetry must be born from life, naturally. Just as the tree, the flower and the fruit come out of the ground.

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To understand a masterpiece is to create it within yourself anew.

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It is easier to create the world than to understand it.

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Chance is God's pseudonym, when he does not want to sign with his own name.

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Shyness is the greatest sin against love.

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Jealousy, a weakness for a man, is for a woman a strength that awakens her ingenuity. She inspires women not so much hatred as courage.

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Reality helps us to create a piece of ideal together with sin.

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Reasonable arguments have yet to convince anyone.

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It is equally difficult for a poet, a senator, and a cobbler to admit that they are not the ultimate goal of the universe and the meaning of all things.

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They repent, but they do not blaspheme.

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We have to forgive ourselves a lot in order to learn to forgive others a lot.

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Mediocrities who don't know what to do with their lives, dream of another one that will last forever.

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Older people hold their opinions too consistently. This is why native Fijians kill their parents when they get old. Thus, they facilitate the progress of evolution, while we inhibit it by creating Academies.

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Sooner or later, curiosity becomes a sin, which is why the devil is always on the side of scientists.

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It is human nature to think rationally and act illogically.

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Christianity has done much for love by declaring it a sin.

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A cute mug? That's like judging wine by its cork.

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Scientists are the most uncurious people. You should never ask a scientist about the mysteries of the universe that are not on display in his display case. They don't interest him.

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Only the poor pay cash, and not because they are virtuous, but because they are denied credit.

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To die is to commit an act whose consequences are incalculable.

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The wonder is not that the starry sky is so vast, but that man measured it.

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Only a free citizen has a homeland; the slave, the serf, subject to a despot, has only his native country.

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Sons believe in the virtue of their mothers. And the daughters - but less so.

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Democracy governs badly, instead it does little.

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Virtuous women age faster.

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God's impotence is infinite.

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If miracles existed, they would cease to be miracles: a miracle is a miracle only because it does not actually happen.

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Coarse and mediocre thinkers derive from reading only pallid and insignificant pleasure. The theatre, on the contrary, illustrates everything, leaving nothing to the imagination: this is why it fully satisfies the majority.

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In the darkness that surrounds us, the scholar bangs his forehead against the wall, while the ignorant sits quietly in the middle of the room.

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In any well-ordered state, wealth is a sacred thing, but in a democratic state, it is the only sacred thing.

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In love, men need shapes and colors; men need images. While women - only by sensations. They love better than we: they are blind. If they had eyes, how could they explain their choice?

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The game is a god. He has his followers and saints who love him for who he is and not what he promises, worshiping him while he attacks them. If the game robs them too cruelly, they don't blame the game, they blame themselves.

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The future is hidden even from those who fulfill it.

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God often grants our desires to punish us.

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A woman is honest when she doesn't lie for no reason.

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A woman has to choose: with a man whom other women love, she will never be at peace, with a man whom other women do not love, she will never be happy.

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Finally, old prejudices are less harmful than new ones: being old, they have softened and become almost harmless.

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Don't give your cards to anyone, or you'll never see them again. Only those books that I have borrowed from others to read remain in my library.

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Science is flawless, but scientists are often wrong.

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We call skeptics those to whom our illusions are foreign, without asking ourselves whether they do not also have illusions of their own.

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It is better to understand a little than to get it wrong.

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Each of us, from his point of view, is the creative center of the world. This is a universal illusion. Not one of the street sweepers is exempt from this illusion. It is imposed on him through his own eyes, which, looking at the heavenly vault above his head, place him exactly in the center of heaven and earth.

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Journalism is the religion of modern societies, and this is progress. Pastors are not bound to believe, and neither is the flock.

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The law, which embodies in itself the sublime idea of ​​equal rights, equally forbids all men, both rich and poor, to sleep under a bridge and steal bread.

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Irony - the last stage of disappointment.

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True love lives by desire and feeds on lies. We only really love what we don't know.

"The madness of contemporary war is justified by dynastic interest, common nationalism, European equilibrium, or ambitions. If there are ambitions in people, this is a very strange way to sustain it, with all the crimes which happen to people during war: destruction of homes, plunder, and mass murder."

"Religion gives a person the understanding of the meaning of his existence and his destination."

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The woman is a cleverly designed trap: she drops her victim as soon as she catches the scent.

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Great feelings don't necessarily require complete understanding.

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What we love in others is not themselves. People are only valuable to us because of the relationships that bind them to us. These relationships change in the course of life, and our emotions change along with them.

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Jealousy in a woman is only a wound of vanity. In a man, it is an agony that is deep like mental anguish and continuous like physical pain.

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Promises cost less than gifts and are worth much more than them. We never give as much as when we give hope.

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Lying is a necessary part of life; without it, there would be no art, no beauty, and not even love in the world.

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I have always valued the foolishness of passions more than the wisdom of indifference.

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Never lend a book, because no one returns the borrowed book. In my library, there are only books that I have borrowed from others.

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Love is a vulgar passion. It disturbs the will, breaks noble intentions, and degrades the loftiest thoughts to the humblest services.

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The problem with desires, even the most innocent ones, is that they subjugate us and make us dependent.

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As we move forward in life, we realize more and more that the rarest of courage is to dare to think.

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Only impossible things are pleasant and beautiful, only they make life attractive and prevent us from dying of boredom.

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If only evil existed, you would not see it, just as the night would have no name if the sun never rose.

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Public opinion is not worth sacrificing any of our desires.

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The heart makes sense, but the mind does not make a heart.

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Men who don't like women are interested in women's fashion. Men who love women don't even notice their clothes.

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Enriching our beauties, we perfected our pains.

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Hate that is not reciprocated has lost half its power.

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A woman is not the same woman next to every man.

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When we live, we desire. And we judge life as good or bad according as we believe our desire to be sweet or bitter.

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It is easier to promise great happiness than to make that promise come true.

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There is no other beauty in life but passions, and passions are meaningless. Love is the most beautiful and heartless of all.

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Morality is the totality of the prejudices of the community.

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We read our thoughts from the thoughts of others.

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We believe that everything we love is excellent, and it annoys us when we are shown the faults of our idols.

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Everyone dreams their life in their own way.

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We only really love for no reason.

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Small things take up a lot of space in our lives.

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It is human nature to think smart and act stupid.

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Even if fifty million people believe in something stupid, it's still stupid.

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There is no more degrading pain than jealousy.

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A woman is honest if she does not lie unnecessarily.

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Until we have experienced what it feels like to love an animal, a part of our soul sleeps deeply.

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There are happy tears, painful smiles, there will always be love while the earth is spinning. Life is beautiful, but you have to know how to live, life is a fight and you have to win!

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The artist either breathes his own life into his work, or dresses up mere puppets and dolls.

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Man is the master of time, which is life itself, only if he divides it into hours, minutes and seconds, i.e. into pieces proportional to the brevity of human existence. Life seems so short in our eyes only because we recklessly measure it against our foolish hopes.

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Death is here, as it has always been. Think of it as the last page of a book I'm still reading.

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People should not be judged by their actions, because they depend on circumstances, but rather by their secret thoughts and deepest intentions.

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To think wisely and act foolishly is human.

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If the road is full of flowers, don't ask where it's taking you!

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Happy people don't know much about life. Pain is a great teacher of people.

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We can only digest knowledge if we eat it with a good appetite.

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Humanity is slowly but surely realizing the dreams of the wise.

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We can only learn by having fun.

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To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream, and not only plan, but also believe.

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Life: action.

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People are not capable of doing good or bad. Good and bad are just a matter of opinion. The sage's actions are guided by nothing but custom and tradition.

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The woman does not give the man pleasure, but only sadness, confusion and black troubles. Love is the cause of the bitterest troubles.

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Infinity is just like nothingness: all of them are incomprehensible.

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In this world, one is only happy if one forgets the world.

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Seen from the inside, man is immeasurably large; it is as big as the world because it carries the world within itself.

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Art must leave its noble nudity. The richness of the costumes and the brightness of the scenes suffocate the drama, which needs no other scene than the magnificence of the action and the truth of the characters.

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Only those who can be kind to themselves are kind to others.

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How sad and boring is reality after beautiful dreams!

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One day (...) one notices that life is often difficult and sometimes unfair and cruel. I wish you not to know his sad side. But know and never forget that with courage and honesty one can overcome all trials.

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Reason seldom resides in ordinary men, and still less in great minds.

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There is no good or bad life. In itself, nothing is honest or dishonorable or just or unjust or pleasant or unpleasant or good or bad. Belief gives things their properties, like salt gives flavor to food.

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Everything passes, (...) but life is immortal and we must love this in its forms that renew without pause.

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A novel without love is like a blood drop without mustard: tasteless and unenjoyable.

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Nature has no principles. There is no reasonable reason for nature to support the belief that human life is worthy of respect. Nature, in its indifference, does not distinguish between good and bad.

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Thinking is unhealthy, and the secret of true wisdom is not to think about anything.

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Pain loves us and clings to us. If you want to endure life, you must love pain.

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Love makes you do the most stupid things.

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The sins of love are forgivable. More correctly: if a person only loves, he does not commit evil. However, sensual love is made up of just as much hate, selfishness, and anger as it is love.

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Nothing is less everyday than sustained self-sacrifice. Now let's think about what a worldly lady has to burn on the altar of love. His freedom, peace, the many lovely games, flirtations, amusements, pastimes of his frolicking soul - all will be lost.

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The ability to love weakens and fades with age, just like other human talents.

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No one in the world should be tempted, not even the most holy creation.

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Man is created in such a way that he rests from one job to another.

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To live is to desire. And according to whether a person considers longing to be sweet or bitter, he judges life to be good or bad.

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Animals, especially in their natural living conditions, are witty and know all kinds of things. By taming them, humiliating them, we corrupt their hearts and minds. What would a person think if they were condemned to the kind of life we ​​force dogs and horses to live, not to mention the animals in the poultry yard.

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To want a woman in the full splendor of her beauty and spirit, a woman who possesses herself, who is self-aware and daring, and who is made even more beautiful and desirable by this, who freely, voluntarily, and superiorly decides her fate; to desire this woman, to love her as she is, and yet to suffer because she has neither the childlike single-mindedness nor the pale innocence, which, if she had, would displease her; to wish him to be who he is, and at the same time not to be who he is; to adore her as life has made her, and to grieve bitterly that the life which fashioned her beauty has anything to do with her, oh, that is an impossible state.

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Bad luck is resourceful and insidious. He jumps through the window, penetrates the walls. It is not always visible, but it is always present.

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Bad luck is our greatest master and our greatest friend. It teaches you the true meaning of life. If they suffer, (...) they will know what they need to know, believe what they need to believe, do what they need to do, and be what they need to be.

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People talk back and forth whether they know something or not. They don't know everything, but they say everything.

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Jealousy in a woman is only a wound of vanity. In man, deep anguish, as deep as the agony of the soul, and as constant as the suffering of the body...

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Soul cannot penetrate soul. (...) Man, no matter what he does, is alone in the world.

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Morality is always the same, (...) because nature does not change. There is morality for animals, and even for plants, because both have agreement or disagreement with nature and therefore good or bad. The morality of wolves is to eat sheep, just as the morality of sheep is to eat grass.

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You only really love what you don't know.

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You only get irritated with those you love.

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Man was carved from such wood that the fatigue of one job is refreshed by another job.

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People see only their own ideas; they blindly and deafly follow their obsessions. They can't be held back.

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What could be more legitimate and humane than to ease the pain with fraud? What would become of us, holy god, if women took away the mercy of lies from us? Lie, my love, lie out of pity for me! Give me the dream that colors the dark sorrow! Lie without remorse! You add a new dazzle with it, next to the dazzle of beauty and love.

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I call him a wise man who, having observed the disorder of nature and the folly of man, does not want to see order and wisdom in it; so: I consider a wise person to be one who does not strive to be so.

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You have to buy a lot if you want to sell a lot.

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The grave swallows us all, we humans know that. The wisdom is to forget about it.

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Stupidity often prevents a person from doing stupid things.

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The human brain is larger and much more convoluted than the brain of the gorilla, but there is no significant difference between the two. Our most sophisticated thoughts and our most elaborate systems are always only great extensions of those thoughts that reside in the brains of monkeys.

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- Do you think that a person can be cured if he wants to be cured? - If a person wants it very deeply and deeply, if our cells want it in us, if our unconscious self wants it, if we want it with the full, swelling, blind instinct of a vigorous tree that wants to turn green again in the spring.

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Morality: a mutual agreement so that everyone can keep what they have, their land, house, furniture, wife and life.

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Life is a farcical disaster, a terrible comic, a carnival mask on bleeding faces.

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Man achieves what he wants; you just have to pay the price.

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Life (...) is a flower and a dagger, life is seeing everything red, then everything blue, life is hate and love, charming and delightful hate and cruel love.

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We call immorality a morality that is not the same as ours.

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There are several paths to salvation. It is also available through love.

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Every change, even the one we desire the most, has its own sadness - because what we part with was a part of ourselves. We die to one life to enter another.

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People respect death because they rightly believe that if it is an honorable thing to die, everyone can be sure that they will be honored at least once.

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To believe that the future does not exist because we do not know it yet is like believing that a book is not finished because we have not yet read it.

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What wants in us is not us, but myriads of wonderfully active cells that we do not know; these cells do not know us, they do not know about each other, and yet they make up our being. With their movement, they bring about countless processes that we call passion, thought, joy, suffering, desire, fear and will.

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The whole history of mankind - which is full of suffering, enthusiasm, killing - is the history of the insane and the furious.

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Why can't humanity go as far as transforming nature to make it peaceful? Why shouldn't humanity, even if it was and will be so tiny, one day suffocate, or at least regulate, the competition for existence? And finally, why shouldn't he abolish the law of murder? (...) It is possible that our race will persist in its gloom, madness, fads, madness and stupor until the sad end comes with frost and darkness. This world may be incurably bad. In any case, I feel good about it.

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Fiery people are prone to madness. That's certain. But it's still not enough to be brainwashed for someone to think well.

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Only women and doctors know how necessary and beneficial lies are to people.

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Every time I opened it somewhere by mistake, I say this both literally and figuratively, I always discovered some unexpected vileness. If society could suddenly be turned inside out like a glove and look inside: we would all faint with disgust and horror.

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Everything that lives is too mysterious. And you, my dear, remain for me an eternal riddle, the meaning of which hides the joys of life and the horrors of death. Don't be afraid to give yourself to me. I will always long for you and I will never recognize you. Is the one we love ever truly ours? Are kisses and hugs anything but the efforts of a beautiful desperation? Even when I hold you in my arms, I'm still looking for you, you're never mine, because I always want you, and because I want the impossible and the infinite in you.

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To see, to hear, to feel: doesn't it mean that we wear ourselves out and die a little? And what is it to live as we live on this earth, if not to die incessantly and to waste every day a part of the amount of life that lies within us?

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I don't believe, but I want to believe. I consider faith to be the most valuable good that we can have in this world. In Saint-Bartholomé, I go to mass every Sunday and holiday, and I never once listened to the priest's sermon without saying to myself: "I would give everything I have, my house, my lands, my forests, if I could be as stupid as this animal ."

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The feeling of life was so great in him that he imagined death as just some terrible life.

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A fool is scariest when he tells the truth.

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Nothing is fair or unfair in itself - just as nothing is good or bad in itself, and nothing is just or unjust, pleasant or unpleasant. Human thought endows the things of life with these qualities, just as salt gives flavor to food.

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It is wise to live in harmony with those whom we cannot leave.

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Desire for someone is caused by a sweet and terrifying force greater than beauty. We come across a woman, among thousands, and as soon as she's ours, we can't bear to leave her, we always need her, and we want her again and again. It is the ashes of his flesh that cause this incurable love trouble. And something else that is unspeakable: the soul of his body.

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Stupidity: the capacity for happiness, perfect satisfaction. This is the highest good in a civilized society.

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It's better to be stupid like everyone else than to be smart like no one else.

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People love what they can, how they can, and with what they have.

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The good thing about old age is that men can no longer cause us pain.

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Events that would seem strange from afar, as soon as they happen next to us, at once become natural, as they really are; they take place in an everyday way, they break down into a whole host of small facts, and they slowly get absorbed into the usual grayness of life.

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The passing hours forget everything and sweep us away, and our actions, like rivers, run between memoryless shores.

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If it is true that desire beautifies everything it seeks to achieve, then the desire for the unknown beautifies the entire universe.

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It is worth more to be free in hell than a slave in heaven.

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Only knowledgeable people dared to claim that the rules of writing could be established. It is as if there is a completely different rule for this than common usage, pleasure and our passions, our virtues and vices, all our weaknesses, all our strengths.

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Morality and knowledge are not directly related. Those who believe that teaching can make people better are not very good observers of nature. They do not see that knowledge destroys prejudice; the basis of morality. It is very uncertain to scientifically prove the most universal moral truth.

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Intelligence today is so rare and confined to so few despised people that it is not dangerous. But let us not wallow in disappointment: it is contrary to the spirit of our race. If some accidental misfortune - which, however, is not to be feared - were to permeate the entire human mass, the effect would be like that of ammonia solution poured into an anthill. Life would suddenly stop. The only thing that keeps people going is that they misunderstand what little they do understand. Ignorance and error are as necessary to life as bread and water. In society, intelligence should only be extremely rare and weak in order to remain harmless. And that's exactly what happens in life.

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Reason, supreme reason, is capricious and cruel. The holy innocence of instinct never deceives us. Instinct is the only truth, the only certainty that mankind can grasp in this deceptive life, in which three-fourths of our troubles arise from thought.

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When the soul is sad, nothing pleases a person.

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Love keeps beauty fresh, and women's bodies feed on love like bees feed on flowers.

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Life is short, but you live it again in your children. The creator of nature has granted this immortality to humans.

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Desire beautifies the things on which it spreads its fiery wings and (...) the fulfillment of desire, which is very often deceptive, means the death of man's only true treasure, illusion; it kills desire, which is the only stimulus of life.

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Man is a carnivorous animal; that he should not be ashamed of eating his brothers, of denying kinship; he boasts that he is of higher origin; but everything points to his affinity with animals; he is born like them, feeds like them, reproduces like them, dies like them.

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Compassion resides in the heart, just as the sense of touch resides in the surface of the skin.

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If the figures of souls were to be understood in the same way as geometrical figures, we would look no more hostilely at the limited spirit than the mathematician at an angle which, due to the difference of five or six degrees of the angular arc, is not endowed with the properties of a right angle.

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I don't think there is anything in the world like the speed with which women forget the one who was everything to them. With this terrifying ability to forget and their talent for love, women are true forces of nature.

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It is better to understand a little than to misunderstand a lot.

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Among a thousand, there is one woman whom, once we have had, we can no longer leave, whom we desire forever and again and again. The body of such a woman has a special charm that causes incurable lovesickness. And there is something else that is indefinable: the soul in such a female body.

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Beautiful movement is the music of the eyes.

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Truth is like the sun; only an eagle's eye shines.

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Of course I'm an atheist... (...) I don't believe in the dualism of nature. The same law governs all creatures, and nothing more remains of man after death than of other creatures. Is it possible to think differently about a certain degree of intelligence?

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We are eternal children and we are always looking for new toys.

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When I hold you in my arms, I'm still looking for you; and you are never quite mine, because I want you forever, because in you I want the impossible, the infinite.

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The woman must choose. With a man whom women love, you can expect no peace. And with someone whom women don't like, you can't expect happiness.

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Two people only break each other, they cannot melt into each other!

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Humanity needs truth, but it is certain that it needs a lie even more, which flatters it, comforts it and gives it infinite hope. Without lies, humanity would perish in its despair and sadness.

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A thought can make someone happy or unhappy; a thought can make you live or kill you.