Anatole France (1844–1924) was one of France’s most popular novelists and winner the 1921 Nobel Prize in Literature.
He was born François-Anatole Thibault but signed his works “Anatole France” as a tribute to his father’s bookstore in Paris. That bookstore, named Librairie de France, specialized in literature on the French Revolution. Many prominent French scholars frequented this bookstore and influenced Anatole’s philosophy.
Though Anatole mostly wrote historical and social novels, he’s best remembered for the fantasy novel L’Île des Pingouins (Penguin Island; 1908) It features an imaginary penguin civilization where a blind and somewhat deaf abbot mistakenly baptizes the penguins who then transform into human beings. Penguin Island is a satire on society and human nature in which Anatole lampooned morality, traditions, and the origin of law and religion.
Anatole France’s other prominent novels include Les dieux ont soif (The Gods Are Athirst, 1912) and La Révolte des anges (The Revolt of Angels, 1914.)
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Anatole France
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.
—Anatole France
Topics: Censorship
It is human nature to think wisely and act foolishly.
—Anatole France
Topics: Wisdom, Humanity, Human Nature
If fifty million people say a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing.
—Anatole France
Topics: Fools, Foolishness
Innocence most often is a good fortune and not a virtue.
—Anatole France
Topics: Perspective, Innocence
When a thing has been said and said well, have no scruple. Take it and copy it.
—Anatole France
In art as in love, instinct is enough.
—Anatole France
Topics: Art, Artists, Arts
The good critic is he who relates the adventures of his soul among masterpieces.
—Anatole France
Topics: Criticism, Critics
I cling to my imperfection, as the very essence of my being.
—Anatole France
Topics: Perfection
It is well for the heart to be naive and for the mind not to be.
—Anatole France
Topics: Knowledge, Innocence
We reproach people for talking about themselves, but it is the subject they treat best.
—Anatole France
Topics: Egotism, Ego, Self-Discovery
The duty of literature is to note what counts, and to light up what is suited to the light. If it ceases to choose and to love, it becomes like a woman who gives herself without preference.
—Anatole France
Topics: Literature
Justice is the means by which established injustices are sanctioned.
—Anatole France
Topics: Justice
Of all the ways of defining man, the worst is the one which makes him out to be a rational animal.
—Anatole France
Topics: Man, Humanity, Humankind
Simple style is like white light. It is complex, but its complexity is not obvious.
—Anatole France
Topics: Simplicity, Time Management, Value of a Day
Our passions are ourselves.
—Anatole France
Topics: Passion, Enthusiasm
Lovers who love truly do not write down their happiness.
—Anatole France
Topics: Love, Lovers
Human affairs inspire in noble hearts only two feelings—admiration or pity.
—Anatole France
Topics: Respect, Admiration, Inspiration
One must follow circumstances, use the forces about us, do in a word what we find to do.
—Anatole France
The mania of thinking renders one unfit for every activity.
—Anatole France
Topics: Decisions
What we call happiness is what we do not know.
—Anatole France
Topics: Happiness
The greatest virtue of man is perhaps curiosity.
—Anatole France
Topics: Curiosity, Virtue
The books that everybody admires are those that nobody reads.
—Anatole France
Topics: Books, Reading
Chance is the pseudonym God uses when He does not want to sign His name.
—Anatole France
Topics: Chance
Let our teaching be full of ideas. Hitherto it has been stuffed only with facts.
—Anatole France
Topics: Teaching
The pseudonym for God when He did not want to sign.
—Anatole France
Topics: Chance
We do not know what to do with this short life, but we want another that will be eternal.
—Anatole France
Topics: Life
The men are included in the eight million dollars.
—Anatole France
Topics: War
There are very honest people who do not think that they have had a bargain unless they have cheated a merchant.
—Anatole France
Topics: Shopping, Cheating
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.
—Anatole France
Topics: Emotions
The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread.
—Anatole France
Topics: Laws, Wealth, Rain, Justice
Universal peace will be realized, not because man will become better, but because a new order of things, a new science, new economic necessities, will impose peace.
—Anatole France
Topics: Peace, War
Wandering re-establishes the original harmony which once existed between man and the universe.
—Anatole France
Topics: Harmony
I thank fate for having made me born poor. Poverty taught me the true value of the gifts useful to life.
—Anatole France
Topics: Poverty, The Poor
It is better to understand a little than to misunderstand a lot.
—Anatole France
Topics: Understanding
Irony is the gaiety of reflection and the joy of wisdom.
—Anatole France
Without lies humanity would perish of despair and boredom.
—Anatole France
Topics: Lying, Deception/Lying, Lies
The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread.
—Anatole France
Topics: Equality
It is not customary to love what one has.
—Anatole France
Topics: Appreciation, Gratitude, Blessings
Night has come! Leaning from the window, we gaze at the vast sombre stretch of the city below us, pierced with multitudinous points of light. Jeanne presses her hand to her forehead as she leans upon the window-bar, and seems a little sad. And I say to myself as I watch her: All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy; for what we leave behind us is a part of ourselves: we must die in one life before we can enter into another!
And as if answering my thought, the young girl murmurs to me.
My guardian, I am so happy; and still I feel as if I wanted to cry!
—Anatole France
Topics: Change
Never lend books, for no one ever returns them; the only books I have in my library are those which people have lent me.
—Anatole France
Topics: One liners, Unhappiness
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