Quotes by Anatole France

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

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.

Nature has no principles. She makes no distinction between good and evil.

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.

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.

Lovers who love truly do not write down their happiness.

Only men who are not interested in women are interested in womens clothes. Men who like women never notice what they wear.

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.

What can be more foolish than to think that all this rare fabric of heaven and earth could come by chance, when all the skill of art is not able to make an oyster!

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

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

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

The truth is that life is delicious, horrible, charming, frightful, sweet, bitter, and that is everything.

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.

To imagine is everything, to know is nothing at all.

In art as in love, instinct is enough.

Nine tenths of education is encouragement.

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

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