Anatole France (1844 – 1924)
Born Jacques Anatole François Thibault, was a French poet, journalist, and novelist.
Dans tout État policé, la richesse est chose sacrée; dans les démocraties elle est la seule chose sacrée.
Of all sexual aberrations, perhaps the most curious is chastity.
L'innocence, le plus souvent, est un bonheur et non pas une vertu.
C'est d'actes et non d'idées que vivent les peuples.
Jealousy is a virtue of democracies which preserves them from tyrants.
La souffrance! quelle divine méconnu! Nous lui devons tout ce qu'il ya de bon en nous, tout ce qui donne du prix ? la vie; nous lui devons la pitié, nous lui devons le courage, nous lui devons toutes les vertus.
De toutes les définitions de l'homme, la plus mauvaise me paraît celle qui en fait un animal raisonnable.
L'homme est ainsi fait qu'il ne se délasse d'un travail que par un autre.
Un conte sans amour est comme du boudin sans moutarde; c’est chose insipide.
How noble the law, in its majestic equality, that both the rich and poor are equally prohibited from peeing in the streets, sleeping under bridges, and stealing bread!
With impassive gaze, Michael, prince of warriors, measured the extent of the disaster, and his keen intelligence penetrated its causes. The armies of the living God had taken the offensive, but by one of those fatalities in war which disconcert the plans of the greatest captains, the enemy had also taken the offensive, and the effect was evident.
The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.
Les livres d'histoire qui ne mentent pas sont tout fort maussades.
Savoir n'est rien, imaginer est tout.
Thinking that what he saw were men living under the natural law, and that the Lord had sent him to teach them the Divine law, he preached the gospel to them.
Mounted on a lofty stone in the midst of the wild circus:
"Inhabitants of this island," said he, "although you be of small stature, you look less like a band of fishermen and mariners than like the senate of a judicious republic. By your gravity, your silence, your tranquil deportment, you form on this wild rock an assembly comparable to the Conscript Fathers at Rome deliberating in the temple of Victory, or rather, to the philosophers of Athens disputing on the benches of the Areopagus. Doubtless you possess neither their science nor their genius, but perhaps in the sight of God you are their superiors. I believe that you are simple and good. As I went round your island I saw no image of murder, no sign of carnage, no enemies' heads or scalps hung from a lofty pole or nailed to the doors of your villages. You appear to me to have no arts and not to work in metals. But your hearts are pure and your hands are innocent, and the truth will easily enter into your souls."
Now what he had taken for men of small stature but of grave bearing were penguins whom the spring had gathered together, and who were ranged in couples on the natural steps of the rock, erect in the majesty of their large white bellies. From moment to moment they moved their winglets like arms, and uttered peaceful cries. They did not fear men, for they did not know them, and had never received any harm from them; and there was in the monk a certain gentleness that reassured the most timid animals and that pleased these penguins extremely.
Il ne savait rien, ne voulait rien savoir, en quoi il se conformait ? son génie, dont il ne surchargeait point l’aimable petitesse, et son heureux instinct lui conseillait de comprendre peu plutôt que de comprendre mal.
Zita told him of the black standards assembled in crowds in all the waste places of the globe; of the deliverance premeditated and prepared in the provinces of Heaven, where the first revolt had long ago been fomented.
"Prince," she went on, "your army awaits you. Come, lead it on to victory.""Friends," replied the great archangel, "I was aware of the object of your visit. Baskets of fruit and honeycombs await you under the shade of this mighty tree. The sun is about to descend into the roseate waters of the Sacred River. When you have eaten, you will slumber pleasantly in this garden, where the joys of the intellect and of the senses have reigned since the day when I drove hence the spirit of the old Demiurge. To-morrow I will give you my answer."
Mael, a scion of a royal family of Cambria, was sent in his ninth year to the Abbey of Yvern so that he might there study both sacred and profane learning. At the age of fourteen he renounced his patrimony and took a vow to serve the Lord. His time was divided, according to the rule, between the singing of hymns, the study of grammar, and the meditation of eternal truths.
Les hommes qui se sont occupés du bonheur des peuples ont rendu leurs proches bien malheureux.
Les gens qui n'eurent point de faiblesses sont terribles; on n'a point de prise sur eux.