Quotes from Anatole France

Só dá verdadeiramente quem dá o próprio trabalho, a própria alma, o próprio gênio. E a excelsa oferenda de si mesmo a toda a humanidade tanto enriquece o doador quanto a comunidade.

Ne prêtez pas vos livres:personnes ne les rends jamais. Les seuls livres que j'ai dans ma bibliothèques sont des livres qu'on m'a prêtés.

Mas se tocarem nos conselhos de guerra – exclamou o senhor de Terremondre –, será o fim do Exército, será o fim do país! Monsieur Bergeret formulou esta resposta: — Quando os padres e os grão-senhores foram privados do direito de enforcar os vilões, acreditou-se que era o fim de tudo. Mas, depressa, viu-se nascer uma nova ordem, superior à antiga. Falo em submeter o soldado, no tempo de paz, ao direito comum.

That is what is most lacking in our people," she said, "they do not think.

sin el Infierno y el Purgatorio nadie se preocuparía de Dios.

El panadero, su mujer y un mozo cumplían las órdenes de los dos comisarios civiles —cuya autoridad simbolizaba una cinta tricolor en el brazo izquierdo— que investigaban si el consumidor pertenecía a la Sección, y la cantidad de pan que podía corresponderle con arreglo a la familia que tuviera en su casa.

Não concebo por que misturam, nesse caso, considerações políticas e paixões partidárias. Ele é superior a tudo isso, pois que é uma questão moral.

Na sociedade, cada qual deve dar e receber. Se esse homem não dá muita coisa, é, sem dúvida, porque não recebeu o bastante.

Until one has loved an animal, a part of one's soul remains unawakened.

Never lend books, for no one ever returns them; the only books I have in my library are books that other folks have lent me.

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.

We have never heard the devil's side of the story, God wrote all the book.

To know is nothing at all; to imagine is everything.

The law, in its majestic equality, forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal their bread.

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

In art as in love, instinct is enough.

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

It is the certainty that they possess the truth that makes men cruel.

The whole art of teaching is only the art of awakening the natural curiosity of the mind for the purpose of satisfying it afterwards.

J'ai toujours préféré la folie des passions à la sagesse de l'indifférence.

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

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.

Of all sexual aberrations, chastity is the strangest.

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