Anatole France: Quotes about people

Anatole France was French writer. Explore interesting quotes on people.

Anatole France: 244 quotes11 likes

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

Si 50 millions de personnes disent une bêtise, c'est quand même une bêtise. As quoted in Listening and Speaking : A Guide to Effective Oral Communication https://books.google.com/books?redir_esc=y&hl=es&id=0CcWYwjwyRgC&focus=searchwithinvolume&q=foolish (1954) by Ralph G. Nichols and Thomas R. Lewis, p. 74 Also misattributed to Bertrand Russell, by Laurence J. Peter, in The Peter Prescription : How To Make Things Go Right (1976), but he subsequently attributed to France in Peter's Quotations: Ideas for Our Time (1977). Derived variant: If forty million people say a foolish thing it does not become a wise one, but the wise man is foolish to give them the lie. W. Somerset Maugham, A Writer's Notebook (1949), entry for 1901 Variant: If fifty million people say a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing.

“Awaken people's curiosity. It is enough to open minds, do not overload them. Put there just a spark.”

Anatole France

“It is by acts, and not by ideas that people live.”

Anatole France

C'est d'actes et non d'idées que vivent les peuples. Series I: Sérénus http://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/S%C3%A9r%C3%A9nus As quoted in The Ironic Temper : Anatole France and His Time (1932) The Literary Life (1888-1892) Variant: It is by acts and not by ideas that people live.

“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.”

Anatole France

[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]

“People who have no weaknesses are terrible; there is no way of taking advantage of them.”

Anatole France book The Crime of Sylvestre Bonnard

Pt. II, ch. 4
The Crime of Sylvestre Bonnard (1881)

“Those who have given themselves the most concern about the happiness of peoples have made their neighbors very miserable.”

Anatole France book The Crime of Sylvestre Bonnard

Les hommes qui se sont occupés du bonheur des peuples ont rendu leurs proches bien malheureux.
Pt. II, ch. 4
The Crime of Sylvestre Bonnard (1881)

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

Anatole France

On reproche aux gens de parler d’eux-mêmes. C’est pourtant le sujet qu’ils traitent le mieux. Series I: À propos du journal des Goncourt http://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/%C3%80_propos_du_%C2%AB_journal_des_Goncourt_%C2%BB The Literary Life (1888-1892)

“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.”

Anatole France book Penguin Island

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

“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.”

Anatole France

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

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

Anatole France book The Revolt of the Angels

Source: The Revolt of the Angels (1914), Ch. XXI