Anatole France Quotes page 2

“Time deals gently only with those who take it gently.”

The first two sentences of this statement first appear as attributed to France in the 1990s, but the full statement is earlier attributed to William Feather, as quoted in Telephony, Vol. 150 (1956), p. 23 http://books.google.com/books?id=Wm0jAQAAMAAJ&q=%22being+able+to+differentiate+between+what+you+do+know%22&dq=%22being+able+to+differentiate+between+what+you+do+know%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=qYJOU9dAzoXRAYumgcAP&ved=0CMsCEOgBMDQ Misattributed

“It is human nature to think wisely and to act in an absurd fashion.”

Source: The Crime of Sylvestre Bonnard

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

Il est dans la nature humaine de penser sagement et d'agir d'une façon absurde. Le livre de mon ami http://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/Le_Livre_de_Pierre_-_Premi%C3%A8res_conqu%C3%AAtes#II._La_Dame_en_blanc (1885): Le livre de Pierre, part I, ch. II: La dame en blanc

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

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

J'ai toujours préféré la folie des passions à la sagesse de l'indifférence.
Pt. II, ch. 4
The Crime of Sylvestre Bonnard (1881)
Variant: I prefer the errors of enthusiasm to the wisdom of indifference.

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

“Nine tenths of education is encouragement.”

Quand une chose a été dite et bien dite, n'ayez aucun scrupule, prenez-la, copiez.
As quoted in Anatole France en pantoufles by Jean-Jacques Brousson (1924); published in English as Anatole France Himself: A Boswellian Record by His Secretary, Jean-Jacques Brousson (1925), trans. John Pollock [Read Books, 2007, ISBN 1-406-75172-3], p. 56

“Man is so made that he can only find relaxation from one kind of labor by taking up another.”

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

L'homme est ainsi fait qu'il ne se délasse d'un travail que par un autre.
Pt. II, ch. 4
Source: The Crime of Sylvestre Bonnard (1881)

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

La majestueuse égalité des lois, qui interdit au riche comme au pauvre de coucher sous les ponts, de mendier dans les rues et de voler du pain. Le Lys Rouge http://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/Le_Lys_rouge/VII [The Red Lily] (1894), ch. 7 Variant: 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.

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

“Our passions are ourselves.”

“Armenia is dying, but it will survive. The little blood that is left is precious blood that will give birth to a heroic generation. A nation that does not want to die, does not die. April 9, 1916 Sorbonne”

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

“Drink! The flies have not spoilt my vintage; the vines were dry before they came.”

Un conte sans amour est comme du boudin sans moutarde; c’est chose insipide. La Révolte des Anges http://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/La_R%C3%A9volte_des_anges_-_8 [The Revolt of the Angels], (1914), ch. VIII

“We have medicines to make women speak; we have none to make them keep silence.”

Book VIII : Future Times
Penguin Island (1908)

“A people under the menace of war and of invasion is very easy to govern. It does not claim social reforms, it does not cavil over armaments or military equipment. It pays without haggling, it ruins itself at it, and that is excellent for the syndicates, the financiers, and the heads of industry to whom patriotic terrors open an abundant source of gain.”

Nous avons des remèdes pour faire parler les femmes; nous n'en avons pas pour les faire taire.
La Comédie de celui qui épousa une femme muette [The Man Who Married a Dumb Wife] (1912), Act II, sc. iv

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

[1914-01-22, Anatole France on Education. Speech at the Inauguration of the Education Part of the Socialist "Maison de Peuple," at Brussels, Translated for "The New Age" by Leonard J. Simons, The New Age (Volume 14, Number 12), 363, http://www.modjourn.org/render.php?id=1165338028234375&view=mjp_object, Modernist Journals Project, 2017-01-04]

“The good critic is one who tells of his mind's adventures among masterpieces.”

II n'y a que les pauvres gens qui payent comptant. Ce n'est pas par vertu; c'est parce qu'on ne leur fait pas crédit. Pierre Nozière http://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/Pierre_Nozi%C3%A8re_-_Livre_premier._Enfance#VI._LES_DEUX_TAILLEURS (1899), book I, ch. VI: Les deux tailleurs

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

Le bon critique est celui qui raconte les aventures de son âme au milieu des chefs-d'œuvre.
Series II : M. Jules Lemaître
The Literary Life (1888-1892)

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

Dans tout État policé, la richesse est chose sacrée; dans les démocraties elle est la seule chose sacrée. L'Île des Pingouins http://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/L%27%C3%8Ele_des_Pingouins_-_Livre_VI_:_Les_Temps_modernes#CHAPITRE_II._PYROT [Penguin Island] (1908), Book VI: Les Temps Modernes, Ch. II: Pyrot

“All the historical books which contain no lies are extremely tedious.”

L'innocence, le plus souvent, est un bonheur et non pas une vertu. Les Dieux Ont Soif http://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/Les_Dieux_ont_soif_-_Chapitre_XV [The Gods Are Thirsty] (1912), ch. XV

“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.”

Les livres d'histoire qui ne mentent pas sont tout fort maussades.
La Bûche [The Log] (December 24, 1849)
The Crime of Sylvestre Bonnard (1881)
Variant: History books that contain no lies are extremely dull.

“Only men who are not interested in women are interested in women's clothes. Men who like women never notice what they wear.”

Sigmund Freud, "The Future of an Illusion" (1927), ch. 8, from The Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, ed. James Strachey and Anna Freud (London, Hogarth Press, 1961), vol. 21, p. 44
Misattributed

Anatole France book Histoire contemporaine

Ce sont les hommes qui n'aiment pas les femmes qui s'intéressent à la toilette des femmes. Et les hommes qui aiment les femmes ne voient pas seulement comment elles sont habillées.
Histoire contemporaine: L'anneau d'améthyste (1899)

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

“Jealousy is a virtue of democracies which preserves them from tyrants.”

Il se flattait d'être sans préjugés, et cette prétention était à elle seule un gros préjugé.
Pt. II, ch. 4
The Crime of Sylvestre Bonnard (1881)

“Can any thing in this world be more foolish than to think that all this rare fabric of heaven and earth can come by chance, when all the skill of art is not able to make an oyster!”

Book VII : Modern Times, Ch. IX : The Final Consequences
Penguin Island (1908)

“For the moment the peril was nowhere and yet everywhere. The majority remained solid; but the leaders became stiff and exacting.”

Jeremy Taylor, "Apples of Sodom," Part II, Sermon XX of Twenty-Five Sermons for the Winter Half-Year, Preached at Golden Grove (1653)
Misattributed
Variant: 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!

“You become a good writer just as you become a good joiner: by planing down your sentences.”

Book VII : Modern Times, Ch. IX : The Final Consequences
Penguin Island (1908)

“Mael, a scion of a royal family of Cambria, was sent in his ninth year to the Abbey of Yvern so that he might there study both sacred and profane learning. At the age of fourteen he renounced his patrimony and took a vow to serve the Lord. His time was divided, according to the rule, between the singing of hymns, the study of grammar, and the meditation of eternal truths.”

On devient bon écrivain comme on devient bon menuisier: en rabotant ses phrases.
As quoted in Anatole France en pantoufles by Jean-Jacques Brousson (1924); published in English as Anatole France Himself: A Boswellian Record by His Secretary, Jean-Jacques Brousson (1925), trans. John Pollock, p. 85
Variant translation: You become a good writer just as you become a good carpenter: by planing down your sentences.

“Lovers who love truly do not write down their happiness.”

Book I : The Beginnings, Ch. I : Life Of Saint Mael
Penguin Island (1908)

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

Les amants qui aiment bien n'écrivent pas leur bonheur.
La Bûche [The Log] (November 30, 1859)
The Crime of Sylvestre Bonnard (1881)

“You think you are dying for your country; you die for the industrialists.”

De toutes les définitions de l'homme, la plus mauvaise me paraît celle qui en fait un animal raisonnable.
Le Petit Pierre (1918), ch. XXXIII

“And to me it seems that you have fallen asleep upon a white rock, and in a parish of dreams, and have dreamt all this in a moment while it was night.”

On croit mourir pour la patrie; on meurt pour les industriels.
L'Humanité (18 July 1922)

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

Philopatris, xxi, as translated in the epigraph, p. 8
The White Stone (1905)

“It was one of the deadliest and heaviest feelings of my life to feel that I was no longer a boy. From that moment I began to grow old in my own esteem — and in my esteem age is not estimable.”

Il est bon que le cœur soit naïf et que l’esprit ne le soit pas. Series II : M. Jules Lemaître http://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/M._Jules_Lema%C3%AEtre The Literary Life (1888-1892)

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

George Gordon, Lord Byron, from The Works of Lord Byron, ed. Rowland E. Prothero (1901), vol. V: Letters and Journals, ch. XXIII: "Detached Thoughts" (15 October 1821 - 18 May 1822), paragraph 72 (p. 445)
Misattributed

“No government ought to be without censors; and where the press is free, none ever will.”

S’il fallait absolument choisir, j’aimerais mieux faire une chose immorale qu’une chose cruelle. Le Lys Rouge http://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/Le_Lys_rouge/I [The Red Lily] (1894), ch. 1

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

No government ought to be without censors: & where the press is free, no one ever will. Thomas Jefferson, letter http://odur.let.rug.nl/~usa/P/tj3/writings/brf/jefl100.htm to George Washington (9 September 1792) Misattributed

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

L'ignorance et l'erreur sont nécessaires à la vie comme le pain et l'eau. Pierre Nozière http://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/Pierre_Nozi%C3%A8re_-_Livre_deuxi%C3%A8me._Notes_%C3%A9crites_par_Pierre_Noziere_en_marge_de_son_gros_Plutarque. (1899), book II: Notes écrites par Pierre Nozière en marge de son gros Plutarque

“The holy man, persuaded that they belonged to some idolatrous people and that in their own language they gave adherence to the Christian faith, invited them to receive baptism.
"I think," said he to them, "that you bathe often, for all the hollows of the rocks are full of pure water, and as I came to your assembly I saw several of you plunging into these natural baths. Now purity of body is the image of spiritual purity."
And he taught them the origin, the nature, and the effects of baptism.
"Baptism," said he to them, "is Adoption, New Birth, Regeneration, Illumination."
And he explained each of these points to them in succession.
Then, having previously blessed the water that fell from the cascades and recited the exorcisms, he baptized those whom he had just taught, pouring on each of their heads a drop of pure water and pronouncing the sacred words.
And thus for three days and three nights he baptized the birds.”

Le hasard, c'est peut-être le pseudonyme de Dieu, quand il ne veut pas signer. — Théophile Gautier, La Croix de Berny (1845), letter III: Edgard Meilhan au Prince de Monbert http://books.google.com/books?id=3TEtAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA29&dq=%22le+pseudonyme+de+Dieu,+quand+il+ne+veut+pas+signer%22&ei=twPuR9TxGYXaygSI-5mYDg Misattributed

“The finest words in the world are only vain sounds, if you cannot comprehend them.”

Book I : The Beginnings, Ch. V : The Baptism Of The Penguins
Penguin Island (1908)

“A pretext presented itself; some insult needed to be avenged, or some debt to be collected. Six battleships, fourteen cruisers, and eighteen transports sailed up the mouth of the river Hippopotamus. Six hundred canoes vainly opposed the landing of the troops. Admiral Vivier des Murenes' cannons produced an appalling effect upon the blacks, who replied to them with flights of arrows, but in spite of their fanatical courage they were entirely defeated. Popular enthusiasm was kindled by the newspapers which the financiers subsidised, and burst into a blaze. Some Socialists alone protested against this barbarous, doubtful, and dangerous enterprise. They were at once arrested.”

Les plus beaux mots du monde ne sont que de vains sons, si on ne les comprend pas. Series I : Propos de rentrée: la terre et la langue http://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/Propos_de_rentr%C3%A9e_:_la_terre_et_la_langue The Literary Life (1888-1892)

“You seem to have dreamt on the white stone, in the midst of the people of dreams, since you dreamt so long a dream in the course of so short a night.”

Book VII : Modern Times, Ch. IX : The Final Consequences
Penguin Island (1908)

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

Source: The White Stone (1905), Ch. VI, p. 237

“It is not likely," remarked Joséphin Leclerc, "that the future will be such as you have seen it. I do not wish for the coming of socialism, but I dread it not. Collectivism at the helm would be quite another thing than is imagined. Who was it who said, carrying back his thoughts to the time of Constantine and of the Church's early triumphs : 'Christianity is triumphant, but its triumph is subject to the conditions imposed by life on all political and religious parties. All of them, whatever they may be, undergo so complete a transformation in the struggle that after victory there remains of themselves but the name and a few symbols of the last idea'?”

La Bûche [The Log] (December 24, 1849)
The Crime of Sylvestre Bonnard (1881)

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

Source: The White Stone (1905), Ch. VI, p. 238

“He had no knowledge and had no desire to acquire any; wherein he conformed to his genius whose engaging fragility he forbore to overload; his instinct fortunately telling him that it was better to understand little than to misunderstand a lot.”

Le christianisme a beaucoup fait pour l’amour en en faisant un péché. Le Jardin d'Épicure http://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/Le_Jardin_d%E2%80%99%C3%89picure [The Garden of Epicurus] (1894) Variant translation: Religion has done love a great service by making it a sin.

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

Il ne savait rien, ne voulait rien savoir, en quoi il se conformait à son génie, dont il ne surchargeait point l’aimable petitesse, et son heureux instinct lui conseillait de comprendre peu plutôt que de comprendre mal. La Révolte des Anges http://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/La_R%C3%A9volte_des_anges_-_1 [The Revolt of the Angels], (1914), ch. I