Anatole France Quotes

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

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.

To accomplish great things, we must not only act but also dream, not only plan, but also believe!

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

Time deals gently only with those who take it gently.

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

The average man, who does not know what to do with his life, wants another one which will last forever.

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.

The books that everybody admires are those that nobody reads.

Of all sexual aberrations, chastity is the strangest.

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

In art as in love, instinct is enough.

I never go into the country for a change of air and a holiday. I always go instead into the eighteenth century.

To accomplish great things we must not only act, but also dream; not only plan, but also believe.

(From an introductory speech at a session of the Académie Française, December 24, 1896)

We chase dreams and embrace shadows.

If we don't change, we don't grow. If we don't grow, we aren't really living.

For the majority of people, though they do not know what to do with this life, long for another that shall have no end.