Anatole France quotes

The books that everybody admires are those that nobody reads.
- Anatole France

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

Until one has loved an animal a part of one’s soul remains unawakened.
- Anatole France

Stupidity is far more dangerous than evil, for evil takes a break from time to time, stupidity does not.
- Anatole France

Man is a rational animal. He can think up a reason for anything he wants to believe.
- Anatole France

In its majestic equality, the law forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges, beg in the streets and steal loaves of bread.
- Anatole France

If the path be beautiful, let us not ask where it leads.
- Anatole France

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.
- Anatole France

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

It is better to understand little than to misunderstand a lot.
- Anatole France

Do not try to satisfy your vanity by teaching a great many things. Awaken people’s curiosity. It is enough to open minds; do not overload them. Put there just a spark. If there is some good inflammable stuff, it will catch fire.
- Anatole France

The more you say, the less they remember.
- Anatole France

You learn to speak by speaking, to study by studying, to run by running, to work by working; in just the same way, you learn to love by loving.
- Anatole France

We have never heard the devil’s side of the story, God wrote all the book.”
- Anatole France

A people living under the perpetual menace of war and invasion is very easy to govern. It demands no social reform. It does not haggle over expenditures for armaments and military equipment. It pays without discussion, it ruins itself, and that is an excellent thing for the syndicates of financiers and manufacturers for whom patriotic terrors are an abundant source of gain.
- Anatole France

Awaken people’s curiosity. It is enough to open minds, do not overload them. Put there just a spark.
- Anatole France

In art as in love, instinct is enough.
- Anatole France

Of all earthly creatures, humans alone have the power to choose. One must never lose time in vainly regretting the past nor in complaining about the changes which cause us discomfort, for change is the very essence of life.
- Anatole France

Existence would be intolerable if we were never to dream.
- Anatole France

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

When a thing has been said and well, have no scruple. Take it and copy it.
- Anatole France

Without lies humanity would perish of despair and boredom.
- Anatole France

Only men who are not interested in women are interested in women’s clothes. Men who like women never notice what they wear.
- Anatole France

Nine tenths of education is encouragement.
- Anatole France

Sometimes one day in a difference place gives you more than ten years of a life at home.
- Anatole France

Intelligent women always marry fools.
- Anatole France