Anatole France Quotes

“J'ai toujours préféré la folie des passions à la sagesse de l'indifférence.”
― Anatole France

“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.”
― Anatole France

“All changes, even the most longed for, must have their melancholy”
― Anatole France

“Had I realized while on Earth," he said, "that Hell was such a delightful place, I should have put more faith in the teachings of religion. As it was, I actually doubted its existence. A foolish error, cherie. I am pleased to say that you have converted me completely."

"I, too," observed Mr. Hamilton, helping himself to wine, "was something of an unbeliever in my time, and while never quite an atheist, like my arch-enemy Jefferson, I was still inclined to look upon Satan as merely a myth. Imagine my satisfaction to find him ruling a monarchy! You know I spent the greater part of my earthly existence fighting Mr. Jefferson and his absurd democratic ideas and now look at the damn country! Run by morons!”
― Frederic Arnold Kummer, Ladies in Hades: A Story of Hell's Smart Set & Gentlemen in Hades: The Story of a Damned Debutante

“You cry, "give us war!" You are visionaries. When will you become thinkers? The thinkers do not look for power and strength from any of the dreams that constitute military art: tactics, strategies, fortifications, artillery and all that rubbish. They do no believe in war, which is a fantasy; they believe in chemistry, which is a science. They know the way to put victory into an algebraic formula.”
― Anatole France, The Revolt of the Angels

“M. Proust was more severe than M. de Caillavet on Anatole France: "He was selfish and supercilious. He had read so much that he had left his heart in other people's books, and all that remained was dryness. One day I asked him how he came to know so much. He said, 'Not by being such a handsome young man as you. I wasn't in demand, and instead of going out I studied and learned'.”
― Céleste Albaret, Monsieur Proust

“Les vierges entonnaient le cantique de Zacharie:
-- Béni soit le Seigneur, le dieu d'Israël.
Brusquement la voix s'arrêta dans leur gorge. Elles avaient vu la face du moine et elles fuyaient d'épouvante en criant:
-- Un vampire! un vampire!
Il était devenu si hideux qu'en passant la main sur son visage, il sentit sa laideur.”
― Anatole France, Thaïs

“Man is summed up in Art. All the rest is moonshine.”
― Anatole France, The Revolt of the Angels