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

Jean Anouilh Playwright

  • Gender: Male
  • Citizenship: France
  • Born: Jun 23, 1910
  • Died: Oct 3, 1987

Jean Marie Lucien Pierre Anouilh was a French dramatist whose career spanned five decades. Though his work ranged from high drama to absurdist farce, Anouilh is best known for his 1943 play Antigone, an adaptation of Sophocles' classical drama, that was seen as an attack on Marshal Pétain's Vichy government. One of France's most prolific writers after World War II, much of Anouilh's work deals with themes of maintaining integrity in a world of moral compromise.

An ugly sight, a man who is afraid.

Until the day of his death, no man can be sure of his courage.

Beauty is one of the rare things which does not lead to doubt of God.

Some men like to make a little garden out of life and walk down a path.

Life is very nice, but it lacks form. It's the aim of art to give it some.

Tragedy is restful: and the reason is that hope, that foul, deceitful thing, has no part in it.

It takes a certain courage and a certain greatness to be truly base.

Men create real miracles when they use their God-given courage and intelligence.

Nothing is irreparable in politics.

We poison our lives with fear of burglary and shipwreck, and, ask anyone, the house is never burgled, and the ship never goes down.

Our entire life - consists ultimately in accepting ourselves as we are.

Things are beautiful if you love them.

One cannot weep for the entire world, it is beyond human strength. One must choose.

Life is a wonderful thing to talk about, or to read about in history books - but it is terrible when one has to live it.