Anatole France Quotes - Page 6

It is in the ability to deceive oneself that the greatest talent is shown.

God forbids suicide, and is unwilling that his creatures should destroy themselves.

The man of science multiples the points of contact between man and nature.

The law in its majesty prohibits rich and poor alike from sleeping under bridges.

Those who have given themselves the most concern about the happiness of peoples have made their neighbors very miserable.

Dog! When we first met on the highway of life, we came from the two poles of creation.... What can be the meaning of the obscure love for me that has sprung up in your heart?

It is not easy to be a pretty woman without causing mischief.

Ugly women may be naturally quite as capricious as pretty ones; but as they are never petted and spoiled, and as no allowances are made for them, they soon find themselves obliged either to suppress their whims or to hide them.

There is only one science, love, one riches, love, only one policy, love. To make love is all the law and the prophets.

In truth man is made rather to eat ices than to pore over old texts.

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

Man is so made that he can only find relaxation from one kind of labor by taking up another.

There are very honest people who do not think that they have had a bargain unless they have cheated a merchant.

The heart errs like the head; its errors are not any the less fatal, and we have more trouble getting free of them because of their sweetness.

One thing above all gives charm to men's thoughts, and this is unrest. A mind that is not uneasy irritates and bores me.

History books that contain no lies are extremely dull.

A person is never happy except at the price of some ignorance. [The ability to focus on positives and distract your mind from negatives for at least a time is a necessary skill for being happy.]

Never lend books, for no one ever returns them

Ignorance and error are necessary to life, like bread and water.

Custom alone regulates morals.

Distrust even Mathematics; albeit so sublime and highly perfected, we have here a machine of such delicacy it can only work in vacuo, and one grain of sand in the wheels is enough to put everything out of gear. One shudders to think to what disaster such a grain of sand may bring a Mathematical brain. Remember Pascal.

There are no bad books any more than there are ugly women.

Christianity has done a great deal for love by making a sin of it.

A dictionary is merely the universe arranged in alphabetical order.

No government ought to be without censors; and where the press is free, no one ever will. Chance is the pseudonym of God when he did not want to sign.