Anatole France
27 quotations
Nine tenths of education is encouragement.
We reproach people for talking about themselves; but it is the subject they treat best.
I prefer the errors of enthusiasm to the indifference of wisdom.
That man is prudent who neither hopes nor fears anything from the uncertain events of the future.
If we don't change, we don't grow. If we don't grow, we aren't really living.
History books that contain no lies are extremely dull.
It is human nature to think wisely and act foolishly.
Of all the ways of defining man, the worst is the one which makes him out to be a rational animal.
A person is never happy except at the price of some ignorance.
Innocence most often is a good fortune and not a virtue.
It is well for the heart to be naive and the mind not to be.
Irony is the gaiety of reflection and the joy of wisdom.
Without lies humanity would perish of despair and boredom.
Lovers who love truly do not write down their happiness.
It is only the poor who pay cash, and that not from virtue, but because they are refused credit.
Nature has no principles. She makes no distinction between good and evil.
When a thing has been said and said well, have no scruple. Take it and copy it.
In art as in love, instinct is enough.
What frightens us most in a madman is his sane conversation.
It is by acts and not by ideas that people live.
To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream; not only plan, but also believe.
The books that everybody admires are those that nobody reads.
The pseudonym for God when He did not want to sign.
Chance is the pseudonym God uses when He does not want to sign His name.
It is better to understand a little than to misunderstand a lot.