Anatole France quotes

“An education which does not cultivate the will is an education that depraves the mind.”

— Anatole France

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

— Anatole France

“Ignorance and error are necessary to life, like bread and water.”

— Anatole France

“Chance is perhaps the pseudonym of God when he did not want to sign.”

— Anatole France

“Suffering! We owe to it all that is good in us, all that gives value to life; we owe to it pity, we owe to it courage, we owe to it all the virtues.”

— Anatole France

“When a thing has been said and well, have no scruple. Take it and copy it.”

— Anatole France

“We reproach people for talking about themselves; but it is the subject they treat best.”

— Anatole France

“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.”

— Anatole France

“Never lend books, for no one ever returns them; the only books I have in my library are books that other folks have left me.”

— Anatole France

“The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself a fool.”

— Anatole France

“I prefer the folly of enthusiasm to the indifference of wisdom.”

— Anatole France

“Without lies humanity would perish of despair and boredom.”

— Anatole France

“We do not know what to do with this short life, yet we want another which will be eternal.”

— Anatole France

“History books that contain no lies are extremely dull.”

— Anatole France

“The books that everybody admires are those that nobody reads.”

— Anatole France

“It is only the poor who pay cash, and that not from virtue, but because they are refused credit.”

— Anatole France

“Of all the sexual aberrations, chastity is the strangest.”

— Anatole France

“Of all the ways of defining man, the worst is the one which makes him out to be a rational animal.”

— Anatole France

“A person is never happy except at the price of some ignorance.”

— Anatole France

“The poor have to labour in the face of the majestic equality of the law, which forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread.”

— Anatole France

“No government ought to be without censors; and where the press is free, no one ever will. Chance is the pseudonym of God when he did not want to sign.”

— Anatole France

“Religion has done love a great service by making it a sin.”

— Anatole France