Quotes from Anatole France


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All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy; for what we leave behind us is a part of ourselves; we must die to one life before we can enter another.


If a million people say a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing.


One thing above all gives charm to men's thoughts, and this is unrest. A mind that is not uneasy irritates and bores me.


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


Until one has loved an animal a part of one's soul remains unawakened.


The whole art of teaching is only the art of awakening the natural curiosity of young minds for the purpose of satisfying it afterwards.


The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread.


That man is prudent who neither hopes nor fears anything from the uncertain events of the future.


Lovers who love truly do not write down their happiness.


You learn to speak by speaking, to study by studying, to run by running, to work by working; in just the same way, you learn to love by loving.


An education isn't how much you have committed to memory, or even how much you know. It's being able to differentiate between what you know and what you don't.


What frightens us most in a madman is his sane conversation.


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


Wandering re-establishes the original harmony which once existed between man and the universe.


Nine tenths of education is encouragement.


Irony is the gaiety of reflection and the joy of wisdom.


It is well for the heart to be naive and the mind not to be.


In art as in love, instinct is enough.


War will disappear only when men shall take no part whatever in violence and shall be ready to suffer every persecution that their abstention will bring them. It is the only way to abolish war.


I thank fate for having made me born poor. Poverty taught me the true value of the gifts useful to life.