It is the certainty that they possess the truth that makes men cruel. -Anatole France, novelist, essayist, Nobel laureate (1844-1924)
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'.
Nine tenths of education is encouragement.
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.
All writers of confessions from Augustine on down, have always remained a little in love with their sins.
Irony is the gaiety of reflection and the joy of wisdom.
In art as in love, instinct is enough.
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)
I prefer the folly of enthusiasm to the indifference of wisdom.
To imagine is everything, to know is nothing at all.