Quotes & anectdotes from
the wise,
the foolish,
the courageous &
the drunk

Anatole France Novelist

  • Gender: Male
  • Citizenship: France
  • Born: Apr 16, 1844
  • Died: Oct 12, 1924

Anatole France was a French poet, journalist, and novelist. He was born in Paris, and died in Saint-Cyr-sur-Loire. He was a successful novelist, with several best-sellers. Ironic and skeptical, he was considered in his day the ideal French man of letters. He was a member of the Académie française, and won the 1921 Nobel Prize for Literature "in recognition of his brilliant literary achievements, characterized as they are by a nobility of style, a profound human sympathy, grace, and a true Gallic temperament".

France is also widely believed to be the model for narrator Marcel's literary idol Bergotte in Marcel Proust's In Search of Lost Time.

History books that contain no lies are extremely dull.

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

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

The whole art of teaching is only the art of awakening the natural curiosity of young minds for the purpose of satisfying it afterwards.

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

Only men who are not interested in women are interested in women's clothes. Men who like women never notice what they wear.

That man is prudent who neither hopes nor fears anything from the uncertain events of the future.

Nature has no principles. She makes no distinction between good and evil.

In art as in love, instinct is enough.

Chance is perhaps the pseudonym of God when he did not want to sign.

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

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

Religion has done love a great service by making it a sin.

Lovers who love truly do not write down their happiness.

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

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.

An education which does not cultivate the will is an education that depraves the mind.

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

Nine tenths of education is encouragement.

The truth is that life is delicious, horrible, charming, frightful, sweet, bitter, and that is everything.