French Language Quotes

“I spent months searching for some secret code before I realized that common sense has nothing to do with it. Hysteria, psychosis, torture, depression: I was told that if something is unpleasant it's probably feminine. This encouraged me, but the theory was blown by such masculine nouns as murder, toothache, and rollerblade. I have no problem learning the words themselves, it's the sexes that trip me up and refuse to stick.”
― David Sedaris, Me Talk Pretty One Day

“My only comfort was the knowledge that I was not alone. Huddled in the hallways and making the most of our pathetic French, my fellow students and I engaged in the sort of conversation commonly overheard in refugee camps.

"Sometime me cry alone at night."

"That be common for I, also, but be more strong, you. Much work and someday you talk pretty. People start love you soon. Maybe tomorrow, okay.”
― David Sedaris, Me Talk Pretty One Day

“all cats have a Spanish tinge although Puss himself elegantly lubricates his virile, muscular, native Bergamasque with French, since that is the only language in which you can purr.”
― Angela Carter, The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories

“I like how writing can take you off for a jaunt in your head and then set you back down in the chair where you've been all along.”
― Georgann Low

“...the English language has enough military might and power behind it to credibly crowd out competitors, but then we must also remember that it was barely a century ago that Voltaire declared that French was the universal language. That was, of course, before Waterloo.”
― R.F. Kuang, Babel

“But it is infamous that they have not told you!’ declared Eustacie. ‘Je n’en reviendrai jamais!’
‘If it’s all the same to you, miss, I’d just as soon you’d talk in a Christian language,’ said Mr. Stubbs.”
― Georgette Heyer, The Talisman Ring

“After the mother tongue follows French, for it is the most widely spoken and indispensable language of Europe; according to our present-day standards it is the most cultivated; fine style and the expressions of taste have been for the most part formed in this language and translated from it into others; it is the simplest and most uniform of languages from which to obtain a foretaste of philosophical grammar; it is the most suitable for the purposes of narrative, logic and reasoning. It must therefore, by the standards of our modern world, follow immediately after the mother tongue and precede every other, even Latin. I would like even the scholar to know French better than Latin!”
― Johann Gottfried Herder, Journal meiner Reise im Jahre 1769: Historisch-kritische Ausgabe

“Mrs. Scamler,’ she said, ‘do you study French, ma'am?’ ‘I do, indeed,’ I said; ‘two hours a day.’ ‘Then, ma’am,’ she says, ‘we call upon you to give it up.’ ‘Give it up!’ I said. ‘Why should I give up what your daughter does?’ for I knew her daughter learnt French at school. ‘Because, ma’am,’ she said, ‘it can’t be for no good end, and if it were people wouldn’t believe it. My daughter learns French at school. But what for? Because it’s an accomplishment that all girls have. They take it like the measles and the chickenpox; but do you suppose they go on having it after they’re done school? No; and if a grown woman takes the measles, it’s bad on her; and if a widow takes to learning French we know what that means.’ ‘It’s a very immoral language,’ said the school-masters wife, for she hadn’t paid the butcher’s bill for six months, as I happened to know. ‘Shocking,’ said the chemist’s wife. ‘I knew a woman who read French, and she ran away from her husband, and died of consumption. For it’s in the language. My husband says its rotten and corrupt, and he ought to know, being a chemist by examination. Mrs. Scamler, you need a pill or a draught or something, for I declare you look quite dissolute already.’ And me only beginning irregular verbs!”
― John Davidson , A Full and True Account of the Wonderful Mission of Earl Lavender, which Lasted One Night and One Day; with a History of the Pursuit of Earl Lavender and Lord Brumm by Mrs. Scamler and Maud Emblem

“Learning French made fun and easy! Talk In French is founded by the language enthusiast, Frédéric BIBARD, a motivating French tutor and traveler.

Find us and explore some great French learning resources and free gifts also!”
― Frederic Bibard

“Just how did you know where this guy grew up?!"
"Was it mere coincidence?! No way! This has to be deliberate! But how?! What kind of magic trick is this, Miss Yamato Nadeshiko?!"
"Um, it's kind of hard to explain but... sometimes there's a certain lilt to how you pronounce your words. It sounded an awful lot like the lyrical accent unique to that area."
"Huh?"
"Eheh heh... when I'm not paying attention, sometimes my hometown accent slips outdo.
Given your outfits and brand choices, I figured you were American... so I wondered if you were born in the South near the Gulf of Mexico... which made me think you probably had gumbo a lot growing up."
"Well, I'll be! You managed to deduce all that?"
"Was I right? Oh, I'm so glad!"
"No way! I don't believe it! Just who are you?! How can you even figure something like that out?!"
"Eheheh heh... it wasn't much. I've just been doing some studying, is all."
"Voila. C'est votre monnaie. Au revoir, bonne journée."
"Merci!"
In the few months since earning my Seat on the Council of Ten... I took advantage of some of the perks it gave me... to visit a whole bunch of different countries. I went to all kinds of regions and met all kinds of people... learning firsthand what it feels like to live and thrive there.
I experienced the "taste of home" special to each place... and incorporated it into my own cooking... so that I could improve a little as a chef!
"And that's how you knew about gumbo? But still! All you did was make a dish from my hometown. That's it! There's no way it should've overwhelmed me this much! Why?! How could you manage something like that?!"
"I think it's because, deep down, this is what you've truly been searching for. Um, to go back to what I mentioned to you earlier... I think you might have the wrong idea. I'm pretty sure that isn't what real hospitality is. In your heart, the kind of hospitality you're truly looking for... isn't to be pampered and treated like a king for a day. If that kind of royal luxury was all you were looking for... you wouldn't need to come all the way to Japan. You could have just reserved a suite at any international five-star hotel to get that experience.
But you said you specifically liked Japan's rural hot springs resort towns. The kind of places so comfortable and familiar they tug at your heart... places that somehow quietly remind you of home.
"I think... no, I know...
... that what you really want...
... is simply a warm, gentle hug.”
― Yuto Tsukuda, 食戟のソーマ 31 [Shokugeki no Souma 31]

“Putain' literally means 'prostitute', but the meaning has evolved with the years, it has left the red light district to settle as a daily word, it is quite common, it lives near the onomatopoeias area, because, phonetically, it is such a convenient word to express when having to emphasise a feeling as it almost acts like an exclamation mark.”
― Alain Bremond-Torrent, "Darling, it's not only about sex"

“Menu

Amuse-Bouche
Biscotte with a Caviar of Tomatoes and Strawberries


Entrées
Chilled Zucchini Basil and Mint Velouté
Ou
Pan-Seared Foie Gras served on Toast with Grilled Strawberries


Plat Principal
Gigot d'agneau, carved tableside

Served with your choice of Pommes de Terre Sarladaise or
Mille-Feuilles de Pommes de Terre

Served with Greens and Lemon Garlic Shallot Vinaigrette and
Multicolored Braised Baby Carrots
Ou
Lemon Chicken Tajine with Almonds and Prunes

Served with Couscous and Seasonal Vegetables
Ou
Panko-Encrusted Filet de Limande

Served with Wild Rice and Grilled Seasonal Vegetables
Ou
Quinoa, Avocado, and Sweet Potato Timbale (vegan)

Served with Rosemary Potatoes”
― Samantha Verant, Sophie Valroux's Paris Stars

“An orange cat scurried out from under the bed and proceeded to snake around my ankles, purring loudly. One eye rested shut, as if it were krazy-glued to a close, and her fur was mottled. Marianne scooped her up. "Sac à puces," (Fleabag), she said. "This stray is a devious one, always sneaking into the apartments. I don't know how she gets in. I'll have to warn Claude to stop feeding her tuna."
I scratched under the cat's chin, staring into her good eye---a kaleidoscope of greens and yellows. "She's sweet," I said.
"She's filthy," said Marianne, tucking the cat under her arm.”
― Samantha Verant, Sophie Valroux's Paris Stars

“She is sending assassins after you because she thinks we are engaged, and thus her mad faerie logic tells her that I will devote my life to seeking revenge against her if she murders you."
"That's generally how these things go. You know the stories."
Of course I did. Deirde and the River Lord; The Princess of Shell Halls.*

*Deirde was an Irish queen who sent her army into Faerie to avenge the death of her faerie husband at the hands of his brothers. The Princess of Shell Halls is likely of French origin, a variant of La princesse et le trône de sel. "Sel," meaning salt, was likely mistranslated as "shell," but the framework of the story is the same: a faerie princess of an undersea kingdom dedicates her life to avenging the death of her betrothed, the prince of an island realm. This despite the fact that leaving the sea condemns her to a slow death, to which she eventually succumbs only after murdering the last of the conspirators in her fiancé's murder.”
― Heather Fawcett, Emily Wilde’s Map of the Otherlands

“Some 40 per cent of the 15,000 words in Shakespeare’s works were of French origin. The same percentage can be found in the current English version of the Bible.

Évidemment, I make no bones about that. This is a book written in bad faith. It’s a French book. So (it is) arrogant.

English, full of French, Norman and Latin, is more of a Romance language than a Germanic one. Its Saxon backbone is clothed in a luxuriant and precious Roman flesh.”
― Bernard Cerquiglini, La langue anglaise n'existe pas: C'est du français mal prononcé

“Remembering the careful way the cooks she'd met chose their ingredients--- the snails at L'Ami Louis, Taeb's saffron, Baldwin's asparagus--- Stella thought Django was more like a magician, conjuring dishes out of thin air. By the time George nudged Stella aside to poke his nose in the door, Lucie was strewing crisp breadcrumbs on top of a thick vegetable potage, and Django was stirring a tart lemon pudding. Downstairs, customers lingered, people who had intended on stopping in for a moment stayed on as increasingly seductive scents wafted through the shop.
Unwilling to admit that he was pleased, George tasted the pudding and grumbled, "You've used up all the eggs. And I wanted gingerbread for tonight's reading."
"Gingerbread!" Django pulled a face. "Nous sommes en France. I will make something more appropriate." Still standing in the doorway, Stella wondered how he would manage this; he'd used everything in the kitchen except an aged pound cake resembling a rock, a handful of desiccated dried apricots, and the sour milk.
"We'll make some coffee." Django was tearing up the stale cake. As she watched, he produced curds from the sour milk, cooked the apricots into jam, and soaked the cake in coffee. With a flourish, he pulled a bar of chocolate from his pocket. "J'ai toujours du chocolat sur moi." He melted the chocolate, stirring in the last of the coffee. "I always have chocolate. You never know when you will need it." Against her better judgement, Stella was charmed.
Lucie stood close by, watching him layer the coffee-drenched cake with jam, curds, and chocolate, grabbing each spoon as he finished. "Will you make this for my birthday?" she asked.
"No."
"Please," she begged.
"For your birthday I will make something better.”
― Ruth Reichl, The Paris Novel