Quotes by Anatole France - Page 4

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 know and what you don't.
Anatole France / Poet
Education
Journey
Knowledge
Learning
Able
Committed
Differentiate
Memories
Much
Being
Between
How
Even
How Much
Memory
Copy Quote
The Arab who built himself a hut with marbles from the temple of Palmyra is more philosophical than all the curators of the museums of London, Paris, and Munich.
Anatole France / Poet
Museums
Philosophical
Philosophy
Copy Quote
What can be more foolish than to think that all this rare fabric of heaven and earth could come by chance, when all the skill of art is not able to make an oyster!
Anatole France / Poet
Art
Atheist
Fabric
Foolish
Heaven
Stupid
Rare
Oyster
Skill
Copy Quote
So long as society is founded on injustice, the function of the laws will be to defend injustice. And the more unjust they are the more respectable they will seem.
Anatole France / Poet
Law
Long
Unjust
Copy Quote
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 / Poet
Peace
Men
Order
Copy Quote
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.
Anatole France / Poet
Change
Life
Smile
Criminal Mind
Melancholy
People Changing
Most
Die
Life Change Must
Another
Before
Changes
Part
Leave
Enter
Even
Must
Ourselves
Copy Quote
An old philosopher said to Monsieur Coignard, a Reverend Father: 'You are a pig!' To which Abad Coignard answered: 'You flatter me, sir. But unfortunately, I'm only a man.'
Anatole France / Poet
Men
Animal
Father
Copy Quote
Dog! When we first met on the highway of life, we came from the two poles of creation.... What can be the meaning of the obscure love for me that has sprung up in your heart?
Anatole France / Poet
Friendship
Dog
Heart
Copy Quote
The poor have to labour in the face of the majestic equality of the law, which forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread.
Anatole France / Poet
Equality
Bread
Bridges
Labour
Majestic
Poor
Rich
Sleep
Streets
Face
Beg
Steal
Copy Quote
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 / Poet
Animal
Dog
Religious
Copy Quote
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 / Poet
Giving
Light
Literature
Copy Quote
Armenia is dying, but it will survive. The little blood that it still has left is precious blood that will give birth to a heroic generation. A nation that does not want to die, does not die.
Anatole France / Poet
Blood
Dying
Giving
Copy Quote
Devout believers are safeguarded in a high degree against the risk of certain neurotic illnesses; their acceptance of the universal neurosis spares them the task of constructing a personal one.
Anatole France / Poet
Inspirational
Acceptance
Neurosis
Risk
Spares
Believers
Constructing
Degree
Devout
Illnesses
Personal
Task
Copy Quote
War will disappear only when men shall take no part whatever in violence and shall be ready to suffer every persecution that their abstention will bring them. It is the only way to abolish war.
Anatole France / Poet
Men
War
Abolish
Disappear
Persecution
Suffering
Violence
Suffer
Copy Quote
A person is never happy except at the price of some ignorance. [The ability to focus on positives and distract your mind from negatives for at least a time is a necessary skill for being happy.]
Anatole France / Poet
Gratitude
Ignorance
Skills
Copy Quote
I am a physician. I keep a drug-shop of lies. I give relief, consolation. Can one console and relieve without lying? ... Only women and doctors know how necessary and how helpful lies are to men.
Anatole France / Poet
Knowledge
Science
Lying
Copy Quote
Yet, every now and then, there would pass a young girl, slender, fair and desirable, arousing in young men a not ignoble desire to possess her, and stirring in old men regrets for ecstasy not seized and now forever past.
Anatole France / Poet
Girl
Past
Regret
Copy Quote
Of all earthly creatures, humans alone have the power to choose. One must never lose time in vainly regretting the past nor in complaining about the changes which cause us discomfort, for change is the very essence of life.
Anatole France / Poet
Change
Life Changing
Regret
Copy Quote
Ugly women may be naturally quite as capricious as pretty ones; but as they are never petted and spoiled, and as no allowances are made for them, they soon find themselves obliged either to suppress their whims or to hide them.
Anatole France / Poet
Women
May
Spoiled
Ugly
Copy Quote
Do not try to satisfy your vanity by teaching a great many things. Awaken people's curiosity. It is enough to open minds; do not overload them. Put there just a spark. If there is some good inflammable stuff, it will catch fire.
Anatole France / Poet
Fire
Teaching
Vanity
Copy Quote
Truth possesses within herself a penetrating force, unknown alike to error and falsehood. I say 'truth' and you understand my meaning. For the beautiful words truth and justice need not to be defined in order to be understood in their true sense.
Anatole France / Poet
Beautiful
Errors
Order
Copy Quote
It is almost impossible 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 distinction between good and evil.
Anatole France / Poet
Life
Nature
Believe
Copy Quote
Without the Utopians of other times, men would still live in caves, miserable and naked. It was Utopians who traced the lines of the first City.....Out of generous dreams come beneficial realities. Utopia is the principle of all progress, and the essay into a better future.
Anatole France / Poet
Dream
Inspirational
Motivational
Copy Quote
God, conquered, will become Satan; Satan, conquering, will become God. May the fates spare me this terrible lot; I love the Hell which formed my genius. I love the Earth where I have done some good, if it be possible to do any good in this fearful world where beings live but by rapine.
Anatole France / Poet
Fate
Genius
Satanic
Copy Quote
Distrust even Mathematics; albeit so sublime and highly perfected, we have here a machine of such delicacy it can only work in vacuo, and one grain of sand in the wheels is enough to put everything out of gear. One shudders to think to what disaster such a grain of sand may bring a Mathematical brain. Remember Pascal.
Anatole France / Poet
Science
Sublime
Thinking
Copy Quote
A people living under the perpetual menace of war and invasion is very easy to govern. It demands no social reform. It does not haggle over expenditures for armaments and military equipment. It pays without discussion, it ruins itself, and that is an excellent thing for the syndicates of financiers and manufacturers for whom patriotic terrors are an abundant source of gain.
Anatole France / Poet
War
Military
Patriotic
Copy Quote
We find it hard to picture to ourselves the state of mind of a man of older days who firmly believed that the Earth was the centre of the Universe, and that all the heavenly bodies revolved around it. He could feel beneath his feet the writhings of the damned amid the flames; very likely he had seen with his own eyes and smelt with his own nostrils the sulphurous fumes of Hell escaping from some fissure in the rocks. Looking upwards, he beheld ... the incorruptible firmament, wherein the stars hung like so many lamps.
Anatole France / Poet
Science
Eye
Stars
Copy Quote
For a man’s life would become intolerable, if he knew what was going to happen to him. He would be made aware of future evils, and would suffer their agonies in advance, while he would get no joy of present blessings since he would know how they would end. Ignorance is the necessary condition of human happiness, and it has to be admitted that on the whole mankind observes that condition well. We are almost entirely ignorant of ourselves; absolutely of others. In ignorance, we find our bliss; in illusions, our happiness.
Anatole France / Poet
Men
Blessing
Ignorance
Copy Quote
Theologians and philosophers, who make God the creator of Nature and the architect of the Universe, reveal Him to us as an illogical and unbalanced Being. They declare He is benevolent because they are afraid of Him, but they are forced to admit the truth that His ways are vicious and beyond understanding. They attribute a malignity to Him seldom to be found in any human being. And that is how they get human beings to worship Him. For our miserable species would never lavish worship on a just and benevolent God from whom they had nothing to fear.
Anatole France / Poet
Philosopher
Understanding
Way
Copy Quote

Related Poet Authors

William Blake
Poet
Monday, Nov 28, 1757
Sunday, Aug 12, 1827
Walt Whitman
Poet
Monday, May 31, 1819
Saturday, Mar 26, 1892
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Poet
Wednesday, Oct 21, 1772
Friday, Jul 25, 1834
Robert Frost
Poet
Thursday, Mar 26, 1874
Tuesday, Jan 29, 1963
Lucy Larcom
Poet
Friday, Mar 05, 1824
Monday, Apr 17, 1893
Zoketsu Norman Fischer
Poet
Zoe Whittall
Poet
Monday, Feb 16, 1976
Zbigniew Herbert
Poet
Wednesday, Oct 29, 1924
Tuesday, Jul 28, 1998
Yvor Winters
Poet
Wednesday, Oct 17, 1900
Thursday, Jan 25, 1968
Yvonne Zipter
Poet
Yusef Komunyakaa
Poet
Tuesday, Apr 29, 1947
Yunus Emre
Poet
Yosa Buson
Poet

Thursday, Dec 25, 1783
Yevgeny Yevtushenko
Poet
Monday, Jul 18, 1932
Saturday, Apr 01, 2017
Yevgeny Baratynsky
Poet
Sunday, Mar 02, 1800
Thursday, Jul 11, 1844

View All Poet Quotes

Top Authors

Tyler, The Creator
Rapper
Wednesday, Mar 06, 1991
Pope Francis
Thursday, Dec 17, 1936
Mahatma Gandhi
Civil Rights Leader
Saturday, Oct 02, 1869
Friday, Jan 30, 1948
Vincent Van Gogh
Painter
Wednesday, Mar 30, 1853
Tuesday, Jul 29, 1890
Henry Ford
Industrialist
Thursday, Jul 30, 1863
Monday, Apr 07, 1947
Sun Tzu
Strategist
Thursday, Jan 01, 1970
Thursday, Jan 01, 1970
John Muir
Author
Saturday, Apr 21, 1838
Thursday, Dec 24, 1914
Oscar Wilde
Writer
Monday, Oct 16, 1854
Friday, Nov 30, 1900
Jordan Peterson
Psychologist
Yogi Berra
Baseball Manager
Tuesday, May 12, 1925
Tuesday, Sep 22, 2015
Robert Frost
Poet
Thursday, Mar 26, 1874
Tuesday, Jan 29, 1963
Elon Musk
Investor
Monday, Jun 28, 1971
Zig Ziglar
Author
Saturday, Nov 06, 1926
Wednesday, Nov 28, 2012
Julius Caesar
Roman Dictator
Thursday, Jan 01, 1970
Donald Trump
45Th President Of The United States
Friday, Jun 14, 1946

View All Authors

Anatole France Quotes - Page 4

App & Tools

Related Poet Authors

Popular Topic Tags

Top Authors

Share This Page

Stay Connected

App & Tools

Related Poet Authors

Popular Topic Tags

Top Authors

Share This Page