anatole france Quotes

It is the certainty that they possess the truth that makes men cruel. -Anatole France, novelist, essayist, Nobel laureate (1844-1924)

- Anatole France

M. Proust was more severe than M. de Caillavet on Anatole France: "He was selfish and supercilious. He had read so much that he had left his heart in other people's books, and all that remained was dryness. One day I asked him how he came to know so much. He said, 'Not by being such a handsome young man as you. I wasn't in demand, and instead of going out I studied and learned'.

- Céleste Albaret, Monsieur Proust

Nine tenths of education is encouragement.

- Anatole France

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.

- Anatole France

All writers of confessions from Augustine on down, have always remained a little in love with their sins.

- Anatole France

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

- Anatole France

In art as in love, instinct is enough.

- Anatole France

To accomplish great things we must not only act, but also dream; not only plan, but also believe.(From an introductory speech at a session of the Académie Française, December 24, 1896)

- Anatole France, Works of Anatole France

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

- Anatole France

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

- Anatole France

You focus on telling stories,
we do everything else.