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
It is in the ability to deceive oneself that the greatest talent is shown.
—Anatole France
Topics: Deception, Talent
The future is a convenient place for dreams.
—Anatole France
Topics: Future, Dreams
The whole art of teaching is only the art of awakening the natural curiosity of young minds for the purpose of satisfying it afterwards.
—Anatole France
Topics: Curiosity, Art, Teaching, Education
History books that contain no lies are extremely dull.
—Anatole France
Topics: Historians, History
Time deals gently only with those who take it gently.
—Anatole France
Topics: Patience, Resilience
Lovers who love truly do not write down their happiness.
—Anatole France
Topics: Love, Lovers
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
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
The Sciences are beneficent. They prevent men from thinking.
—Anatole France
Topics: Science
Simple style is like white light. It is complex, but its complexity is not obvious.
—Anatole France
Topics: Simplicity, Value of a Day, Time Management
The future is hidden even from those who make it.
—Anatole France
Topics: The Future, Tomorrow
What frightens us most in a madman is his sane conversation.
—Anatole France
Topics: Sanity
Innocence most often is a good fortune and not a virtue.
—Anatole France
Topics: Perspective, Innocence
It is by acts and not by ideas that people live.
—Anatole France
Topics: Action
When a thing has been said and said well, have no scruple. Take it and copy it.
—Anatole France
Topics: Plagiarism
The books that everybody admires are those that nobody reads.
—Anatole France
Topics: Reading, Books
A person is never happy except at the price of some ignorance.
—Anatole France
Topics: Defects, Ignorance
Man is so made that he can only find relaxation from one kind of labor by taking up another.
—Anatole France
Topics: Kind, Work, Labor, Relaxation
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
Let our teaching be full of ideas. Hitherto it has been stuffed only with facts.
—Anatole France
Topics: Teaching
Justice is the means by which established injustices are sanctioned.
—Anatole France
Topics: Justice
Nine tenths of education is encouragement.
—Anatole France
Topics: Encouragement, Education
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
Chance is the pseudonym God uses when He does not want to sign His name.
—Anatole France
Topics: Chance
That man is prudent who neither hopes nor fears anything from the uncertain events of the future.
—Anatole France
Topics: Prudence, The Future, Events, Future
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 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
The good critic is he who relates the adventures of his soul among masterpieces.
—Anatole France
Topics: Criticism, Critics
There are very honest people who do not think that they have had a bargain unless they have cheated a merchant.
—Anatole France
Topics: Cheating, Shopping
Wondering Whom to Read Next?
- Jean Cocteau French Poet, Artist
- Voltaire French Philosopher, Author
- Victor Hugo French Novelist
- Andre Gide French Novelist
- Michel Houellebecq French Author
- Gustave Flaubert French Novelist
- Guy de Maupassant French Short-story Writer
- Remy de Gourmont French Poet, Writer
- Marcel Proust French Novelist
- Jean-Paul Sartre French Philosopher
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