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
It is almost systematically to constitute a natural moral law. Nature has no principles. She furnishes us with no reason to believe that human life is to be respected. Nature, in her indifference, makes no difference between right and wrong.
—Anatole France
Topics: Nature, Evil, Morals, Morality
It is not customary to love what one has.
—Anatole France
Topics: Appreciation, Gratitude, Blessings
We do not know what to do with this short life, but we want another that will be eternal.
—Anatole France
Topics: Life
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
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
In art as in love, instinct is enough.
—Anatole France
Topics: Artists, Arts, Art
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
Topics: Fashion
That man is prudent who neither hopes nor fears anything from the uncertain events of the future.
—Anatole France
Topics: Prudence, Future, Events, The Future
It is human nature to think wisely and act foolishly.
—Anatole France
Topics: Human Nature, Wisdom, Humanity
The finest words in the world are only vain sounds, if you cannot comprehend them.
—Anatole France
Topics: Words
Religion has done love a great service by making it a sin.
—Anatole France
Topics: Love, Religion
I cling to my imperfection, as the very essence of my being.
—Anatole France
Topics: Perfection
Of all the sexual aberrations, chastity is the strangest.
—Anatole France
Topics: Sex
Lovers who love truly do not write down their happiness.
—Anatole France
Topics: Lovers, Love
Human affairs inspire in noble hearts only two feelings—admiration or pity.
—Anatole France
Topics: Respect, Admiration, Inspiration
It is only the poor who pay cash, and that not from virtue, but because they are refused credit.
—Anatole France
Topics: Money
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
When a thing has been said and said well, have no scruple. Take it and copy it.
—Anatole France
Justice is the means by which established injustices are sanctioned.
—Anatole France
Topics: Justice
The greatest virtue of man is perhaps curiosity.
—Anatole France
Topics: Virtue, Curiosity
The dog is a religious animal. In his savage state he worships the moon and the lights that float upon the waters. These are his gods to whom he appeals at night with long-drawn howls.
—Anatole France
Topics: Dogs
Irony is the gaiety of reflection and the joy of wisdom.
—Anatole France
One must never lose time in vainly regretting the past nor complaining against the changes which cause us discomfort, for change is the very essence of life.
—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
Suffering! We owe to it all that is good in us, all that gives value to life; we owe to it pity, we owe to it courage, we owe to it all the virtues.
—Anatole France
Topics: Difficulties, Adversity
The pseudonym for God when He did not want to sign.
—Anatole France
Topics: Chance
What men call civilization is the condition of present customs; what they call barbarism, the condition of past ones.
—Anatole France
Topics: Civilization
The good critic is he who relates the adventures of his soul among masterpieces.
—Anatole France
Topics: Critics, Criticism
I prefer the folly of enthusiasm to the indifference of wisdom.
—Anatole France
Topics: Enthusiasm, Knowledge
Do not try to satisfy your vanity by teaching a great many things. Awakened people’s curiosity. It is enough to open minds; do not overload them. Put there just a spark. If there is some good flammable stuff, it will catch fire.
—Anatole France
Topics: Wilderness
The Sciences are beneficent. They prevent men from thinking.
—Anatole France
Topics: Science
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: Justice, Rain, Laws, Wealth
To die for an idea sets a high price on conjecture.
—Anatole France
Topics: Ideals
It is well for the heart to be naive and for the mind not to be.
—Anatole France
Topics: Innocence, Knowledge
We reproach people for talking about themselves, but it is the subject they treat best.
—Anatole France
Topics: Egotism, Ego, Self-Discovery
The future is a convenient place for dreams.
—Anatole France
Topics: Future, Dreams
Man is so made that he can only find relaxation from one kind of labor by taking up another.
—Anatole France
Topics: Relaxation, Kind, Work, Labor
We have drugs to make women speak, but none to keep them silent.
—Anatole France
Topics: Drugs
To imagine is everything, to know is nothing at all.
—Anatole France
Topics: Imagination
Never lend books, for no one ever returns them. The only books I have in my library are those that other folks have lent me.
—Anatole France
Topics: Libraries
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