Best 169 quotes of Anatole France on MyQuotes

A dictionary is merely the universe arranged in alphabetical order.

A good critic is the man who describes his adventures among masterpieces.

America, where thanks to Congress, there are forty million laws to enforce the Ten Commandments.

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.

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

An old philosopher said to Monsieur Coignard, a Reverend Father: 'You are a pig!' To which Abad Coignard answered: 'You flatter me, sir. But unfortunately, I'm only a man.'

A people living under the perpetual menace of war and invasion is very easy to govern. It demands no social reform. It does not haggle over expenditures for armaments and military equipment. It pays without discussion, it ruins itself, and that is an excellent thing for the syndicates of financiers and manufacturers for whom patriotic terrors are an abundant source of gain.

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

A person is never happy except at the price of some ignorance. [The ability to focus on positives and distract your mind from negatives for at least a time is a necessary skill for being happy.]

Armenia is dying, but it will survive. The little blood that it still has left is precious blood that will give birth to a heroic generation. A nation that does not want to die, does not die.

A simple style is like white light. Although complex, it does not appear to be so.

A tale without love is like beef without mustard: insipid.

A woman without breasts is like a bed without pillows.

A writer is rarely so well inspired as when he talks about himself.

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

Chance is the pseudonym God uses when He'd rather not sign His own name.

Christianity has done a great deal for love by making a sin of it.

Custom alone regulates morals.

Devout believers are safeguarded in a high degree against the risk of certain neurotic illnesses; their acceptance of the universal neurosis spares them the task of constructing a personal one.

Dictionary: The universe in alphabetical order.

Distrust even Mathematics; albeit so sublime and highly perfected, we have here a machine of such delicacy it can only work in vacuo, and one grain of sand in the wheels is enough to put everything out of gear. One shudders to think to what disaster such a grain of sand may bring a Mathematical brain. Remember Pascal.

Dog! When we first met on the highway of life, we came from the two poles of creation.... What can be the meaning of the obscure love for me that has sprung up in your heart?

Do not try to satisfy your vanity by teaching a great many things. Awaken people's curiosity. It is enough to open minds; do not overload them. Put there just a spark. If there is some good inflammable stuff, it will catch fire.

Existence would be intolerable if we were never to dream.

For a man’s life would become intolerable, if he knew what was going to happen to him. He would be made aware of future evils, and would suffer their agonies in advance, while he would get no joy of present blessings since he would know how they would end. Ignorance is the necessary condition of human happiness, and it has to be admitted that on the whole mankind observes that condition well. We are almost entirely ignorant of ourselves; absolutely of others. In ignorance, we find our bliss; in illusions, our happiness.

For every monarchy overthrown the sky becomes less brilliant, because it loses a star. A republic is ugliness set free.

For the majority of people , though they do not know what to do with this life , long for another that shall have no end .

God, conquered, will become Satan; Satan, conquering, will become God. May the fates spare me this terrible lot; I love the Hell which formed my genius. I love the Earth where I have done some good, if it be possible to do any good in this fearful world where beings live but by rapine.

God forbids suicide, and is unwilling that his creatures should destroy themselves.

Good angels are fallible ... they sin every day and fall from Heaven like flies.

He flattered himself on being a man without any prejudices; and this pretension itself is a very great prejudice.

History books that contain no lies are extremely dull.

Human affairs inspire in noble hearts only two feelings-admiration or pity.

I am a physician. I keep a drug-shop of lies. I give relief, consolation. Can one console and relieve without lying? ... Only women and doctors know how necessary and how helpful lies are to men.

I cling to my imperfection, as the very essence of my being.

I do not know any reading more easy, more fascinating, more delightful than a catalogue.

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

If it were absolutely necessary to choose, I would rather be guilty of an immoral act than of a cruel one.

If the path be beautiful, let us not ask where it leads.

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

In art as in love, instinct is enough.

In every well-governed state wealth is a sacred thing; in democracies it is the only sacred thing.

In its majestic equality, the law forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges, beg in the streets and steal loaves of bread.

Innocence most often is a good fortune and not a virtue.

In order that knowledge be properly digested it must have been swallowed with a good appetite.

Intelligent women always marry fools

In truth man is made rather to eat ices than to pore over old texts.

I ought not to fear to survive my own people so long as there are men in the world; for there are always some whom one can love.

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

Irony and pity are two good counselors: one, in smiling, makes life pleasurable; the other, who cries, makes it sacred.