Anatole France Quotes

Wandering in a vast forest at night, I have only a faint light to guide me. A stranger appears and says to me: ‘My friend, you should blow out your candle in order to find your way more clearly.’ This stranger is a theologian.

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

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

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.

The whole history of civilization is strewn with creeds and institutions which were invaluable at first, and deadly afterwards.

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

The average man does not know what to do with his life, yet wants another one which will last forever.

To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream; not only plan, but also believe.

The future is like heaven, everyone exalts it, but no one wants to go there now.

A man is not entirely fiction; he is partial fact.

The books that help you most are those which make you think that most. The hardest way of learning is that of easy reading; but a great book that comes from a great thinker — it is a ship of thought, deep freighted with truth and with beauty.

Laughter is the mind’s intonation. There is nothing that doses the brain so much as humor. Love and sympathy incline men to sleep. The Romans, wise soothsayers, had resolved not to laugh. They did not laugh, they built.

The freedom to blaspheme and to try out ideas on the off-chance that they may be true is one of the most basic freedoms of all.

Until one has loved an animal, a part of one’s soul remains unawakened.

An education isn’t how much you have committed to memory, or even how much you know. It’s being able to differentiate between what you do know and what you don’t.

Those who have failed to work toward the truth have missed the purpose of living.

All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy; for what we leave behind us is a part of ourselves; we must die to one life before we can enter another.

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

It is not necessary to think of God as a notion, a theory, or a mystery. He is an experience.

We do not judge the people we love.

Of all the ways of defining man, the worst is the one which identifies him with dust.

To outshine the sun, fly the lantern at the zenith.

Never lend books, for no one ever returns them; the only books I have in my library are books that other folks have lent me.

We are so vain that we even care for the opinion of those we don’t care for.

The good critic is he who relates the adventures of his soul among masterpieces.

I’m just a grain of dust on the top of a grain of dust on the top of a grain of dust, that’s what I am!

The law, in its infinite wisdom, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges.

Neither love nor evil conquers all, but evil cheats more.

Learning carries within itself certain dangers because out of necessity one has to learn from one’s enemies.

To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream; not only plan, but also believe.

Everyone has three characters: that which they exhibit, that which they have, and that which they think they have.

The first virtue of all really great men is that they are sincere.

The only ones who should kill are those who are prepared to be killed!

There are some people who think that everything one does with a serious face is sensible.

Chance is the one thing you can’t trust.

Every man must make a choice between the smooth path and the adventurous one.

In literature, as in love, we are astonished at what is chosen by others.

It is not the living who need most the consolations of the cemetery.

In its beginning, a civilization is always an artificial construction.

Art for art’s sake is a philosophy of the well-fed.

Write a poem to a friend, even a worthless scoundrel.

Never lend books, for no one ever returns them; the only books I have in my library are books that other folks have lent me.

All adventures, especially into new territory, are scary.

You learn to experiment with life. It’s like a craft.

Nature has no principles.

An education is not how much you have committed to memory, or even how much you know. It’s being able to differentiate between what you do know and what you don’t.

If a million people believe a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing.

Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore.

The poor have to labor in the face of the majestic equality of the law, which forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, beg in the streets, and steal bread.

To know everything is to forgive everything.