Anatole France Quotes

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

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.

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.

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

To know is nothing at all; to imagine is everything.

The law, in its majestic equality, forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal their bread.

If the path be beautiful, let us not ask where it leads.

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

In art as in love, instinct is enough.

If fifty million people say a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing.

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

The whole art of teaching is only the art of awakening the natural curiosity of the mind for the purpose of satisfying it afterwards.

Stupidity is far more dangerous than evil, for evil takes a break from time to time, stupidity does not.

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

Until one has loved an animal, a part of one’s soul remains unawakened. —Anatole France, Nobel Laureate, 1921

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 do know and what you don't.

Of all sexual aberrations, chastity is the strangest.

It is human nature to think wisely and act in an absurd fashion.

Time deals gently only with those who take it gently.

When a thing has been said and said well, have no scruple. Take it and copy it.

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

I prefer the errors of enthusiasm to the indifference of wisdom.

Wandering re-establishes the original harmony which once existed between man and the universe.

A person is never happy except at the price of some ignorance.

Nine tenths of education is encouragement.

Man is so made that he can only find relaxation from one kind of labor by taking up another.

Awaken people's curiosity. It is enough to open minds, do not overload them. Put there just a spark.

The books that everybody admires are those that nobody reads.

We chase dreams and embrace shadows.

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

The wonder is, not that the field of stars is so vast, but that man has measured it.

It is good to collect things, but it is better to go on walks.

It is by acts and not by ideas that people live.

All the good writers of confessions, from Augustine onwards, are men who are still a little in love with their sins.

Without lies, humanity would perish of despair and boredom

We do not know what to do with this short life, yet we yearn for another that will be eternal.

Our passions are ourselves.

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

Suffering — how divine it is, how misunderstood! 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.

Armenia is dying, but it will survive. The little blood that is left is precious blood that will give birth to a heroic generation. A nation that does not want to die, does not die. April 9, 1916 Sorbonne

People who have no weaknesses are terrible; there is no way of taking advantage of them.

It is only the poor who are forbidden to beg.

Until one has loved an animal, a part of one’s soul remains unawakened.’” Hyacinth looked up at her father. “What does that mean, Papa?” “It means that animals make our hearts happy in a very special way. A French man named Anatole France said that a long time ago.

What can be more foolish than to think that all this rare fabric of heaven and earth could come by chance?

There are forces, Lucius, infinitely more powerful than reason and science." " What are they?" asked Cotta. "Ignorance and folly," replied Aristaeus.

Dictionary: The universe in alphabetical order.

As to the kind of truth one finds in books, it is a truth that enables us sometimes to discern what things are not, without ever enabling us to discover what they are.

All changes, even the most longed for, must have their melancholy

The greatest virtue of man is perhaps curiosity. ربما يكون الفضول هو اعظم فضائل البشر

Remember what Anatole France said about the dog masturbating on your leg--'Sure, it's honest, but who needs it?

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

It is not customary to love what one has

It is easy in the world to live after the world's opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after your own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.

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.

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.

No, let us not conquer the heavens. It is enough to have the power to do so. War engenders war, and victory defeat. God, conquered, will become Satan; Satan, conquering, will become God. May the fates spare me this terrible lot!‎

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.

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

...the adventure of the soul among the masterpieces.

It is possible that these millions of suns, along with thousands of millions more we cannot see, make up altogether but a globule of blood or lymph in the veins of an animal, of a minute insect, hatched in a world of whose vastness we can frame no conception, but which nevertheless would itself, in proportion to some other world, be no more than a speck of dust.

Within every one of us there lives both a Don Quixote and a Sancho Panza to whom we hearken by turns; and though Sancho most persuades us, it is Don Quixote that we find ourselves obliged to admire...

La loi, dans un grand souci d'égalité, interdit aux riches comme aux pauvres de coucher sous les ponts, de mendier dans les rues et de voler du pain.

He flattered himself on being a man without any prejudices; and his pretension itself is a very great prejudice.

Il est dans la nature humaine de penser sagement et d’agir d’une façon absurde.

EPILOGUE AUTHOR’S NOTE HISTORICAL NOTES ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ABOUT THE AUTHOR Until one has loved an animal, a part of one’s soul remains unawakened. —Anatole France, Nobel Laureate, 1921

فن التدريس ما هو إلا فن ايقاظ الفضول الطبيعي للعقل بغرض اشباع هذا الفضول فيما بعد.

Je tiens à mon imperfection comme à ma raison d'être.

We love truly only those we love even in their weakness and their poverty. To forbear, to forgive, to console, that alone is the science of love.

I sought out the laws which govern nature, solid or ethereal, and after much pondering I perceived that the Universe had not been formed as its pretended Creator would have us believe; I knew that all that exists, exists of itself and not by the caprice of Iahveh; that the world is itself its own creator and the spirit its own God. Henceforth I despised Iahveh for his imposture, and I hated him because he showed himself to be opposed to all that I found desirable and good: liberty, curiosity, doubt.

The majestic equality of the law forbids rich and poor alike from pissing in the streets, sleeping under bridges, and stealing bread.

If you have not loved an animal, your soul remains unawakened.

I am but a miserable sinner, but I have found, in my long life, that the cenobite has no foe worse than sadness".

Insane Europeans who plot to cut each others’ throats, now that one and the same civilisation enfolds and unites them all!

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

In its majestic equality, the law forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges, beg in the streets and steal loaves of bread.

Have we not seen many times indeed human beings who, poor and naked, prostrate themselves before all the phantoms of fear, and rather than follow the teaching of well-disposed demons, obey the commandments of cruel demiurges?

Each one dreams the dream of life in his own way. I have dreamed it in my library; and when the hour shall come in which I must leave this world, may it please God to take me from my ladder—from before my shelves of books!...

Great courage was required to engage in such an adventure. But George was in love and Freeheart was faithful. And as the most delightful of poets says “What cannot Friendship guided by sweet Love?

And the non-reading of books, you will object, should be characteristic of all collectors? This is news to me, you may say. It is not news at all. experts will bear me out when I say that it is the oldest thing in the world. Suffice it to quote the answer which Anatole France gave to a philistine who admired his library and then finished with the standard question, “And you have read all these books, Monsieur France?” “Not one-tenth of them. I don’t suppose you use your Sevres china every day?

—Je porte dans mon coeur des villes innombrables et des déserts illimités. Et le mal, le mal et la mort, étendus sur cette immensité, la couvrent comme la nuit couvre la terre. Je suis à moi seul un univers de pensées mauvaises. Il parlait ainsi parce que le désir de la femme était en lui.

The history books which contain no lies are extremely tedious

آری ریشه همه بیچارگی‌ها درونی ما در خود ما است، ما تصور می‌کنیم بدبختی از بیرون به ما هجوم می‌آورد ولی این درون ماست که سرچشمه اصلی تلخی‌ها و خوشی‌های زندگی است.

The sadness of churches at night moves me; I feel in them the grandeur of nothingness.

Das Leben ist zu kurz und Proust zu lang...

Ah! Yes, the truth, that ingenious concoction of desirability of appearance.

C'est dans l'absolue ignorance de notre raison d'être qu'est la racine de notre tristesse et de nos dégoûts.

one has loved an animal, a part of one’s soul remains unawakened. —Anatole France, Nobel Laureate, 1921

This next one’s by someone named Anatole France. ‘To know is nothing at all; to imagine is everything.’ 

All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy; for what we leave behind is part of ourselves; we must die to one life before we can enter into another. -Anatole France

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

Epicure a dit: ou Dieu veut empêcher le mal et ne le peut, ou il le peut et ne le veut, ou il ne le peut ni ne le veut, ou il le veut et le peut. S'il le veut et ne le peut, il est impuissant; s'il le peut et ne le veut, il est pervers; s'il ne le peut ni ne le veut, il est impuissant et pervers; s'il le veut et le peut, que ne le fait-il, mon père ?

La paix universelle se réalisera un jour non parce que les hommes deviendront meilleurs mais parce qu'un nouvel ordre, une science nouvelle, de nouvelles nécessités économiques leur imposeront l'état pacifique.

I have always preferred the folly of the passions to the wisdom of indifference. But just because my own passions are not of that sort which burst out with violence to devastate and kill, the common mind is not aware of their existence. Nevertheless, I am greatly moved by them at times, and it has more than once been my fate to lose my sleep for the sake of a few pages written by some forgotten monk or printed by some humble apprentice of Peter Schöffer. And if these fierce enthusiasms are slowly being quenched in me, it is only because I am being slowly quenched myself. Our passions are ourselves. My old books are Me. I am just as old and thumb-worn as they are.

I must beg very serious persons not to read this. It is not written for them. It is not written for grave people who despise trifles and who always require to be instructed. I only venture to offer this to those who like to be entertained, and whose minds are both young and gay. Only those who are amused by innocent pleasures will read this to the end.

It is well for the heart to be naive and the mind not to be.

For you can always tell the gods by their appetite.

his life was gently gliding along like a stream that reflects the heaven and fertilizes the fields.

إنه لجزء من الطبيعة البشرية: أن نفكر بحكمة، وأن نتصرف بحماقة

A religião prestou ao amor um grande serviço, fazendo dele um pecado.

Късмет е псевдонимът, който Бог използва, когато не иска да се подпише със собственото си име.

Gelehrte sind Menschen, die sich von normalen Sterblichen durch die anerworbene Fähigkeit unterscheiden, sich an weitschweifigen und komplizierten Irrtümern zu ergötzen.

But I deny that He created the world; at the most He organised but an inferior part of it, and all that He touched bears the mark of His rough and unforeseeing touch.

M. Proust was more severe than M. de Caillavet on Anatole France: "He was selfish and supercilious. He had read so much that he had left his heart in other people's books, and all that remained was dryness. One day I asked him how he came to know so much. He said, 'Not by being such a handsome young man as you. I wasn't in demand, and instead of going out I studied and learned'.

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.

… true literature can exist only where it is created not by diligent and trustworthy officials, but by madmen, hermits, heretics, dreamers, rebels and sceptics. But when a writer must be sensible and rigidly orthodox, when he must make himself useful today, when he cannot lash out at everyone like Swift or smile at everything like Anatole France, there can be no bronze literature, there can only be a paper literature, a newspaper literature, which is read today and used for wrapping soap tomorrow.” – Yevgeny Zamyatin.

I love reason, but my love does not make me a fanatic,' Brotteaux answered. 'Reason is our guide, a light to show us our way; but if you make a divinity of it, it will blind you and lead you into crime

آدمیان همیشه شرور بودند و از آزار دادن به همنوع خود پیوسته لذت برده‌اند ولی اقلاً در ادوار قدیم شکنجه برای تسکین حس کینه‌جویی و انتقام معمول بوده ولی امروزه برای به کرسی نشاندن عقاید خود به مردم زجر می‌دهند.

There, in a livid light, the demons tormented the souls of the damned. The souls preserved the appearance of the bodies which had held them, and even wore some rags of clothing. These souls seemed peaceful in the midst of their torments.

You cry, "give us war!" You are visionaries. When will you become thinkers? The thinkers do not look for power and strength from any of the dreams that constitute military art: tactics, strategies, fortifications, artillery and all that rubbish. They do no believe in war, which is a fantasy; they believe in chemistry, which is a science. They know the way to put victory into an algebraic formula.

This book bore the label R>3214 VIII/2. And this painful truth was suddenly borne in upon the mind of Monsieur Sariette: to wit, that the most scientific system of numbering will not help to find a book if the book is no longer in its place.

Les vierges entonnaient le cantique de Zacharie: -- Béni soit le Seigneur, le dieu d'Israël. Brusquement la voix s'arrêta dans leur gorge. Elles avaient vu la face du moine et elles fuyaient d'épouvante en criant: -- Un vampire! un vampire! Il était devenu si hideux qu'en passant la main sur son visage, il sentit sa laideur.

anecdote tells of a meeting in 1923 between Nobel Prize laureate Anatole France and the beautiful and talented dancer Isadora Duncan. Discussing the then popular eugenics movement, Duncan said, ‘Just imagine a child with my beauty and your brains!’ France responded, ‘Yes, but imagine a child with my beauty and your brains.’)

Alas!' replied Maître Mouche, 'she must be trained to take her part in the struggle of life. One does not come into this world simply to amuse oneself, and to do just what one pleases.' 'One comes into this world,' I responded, rather warmly, 'to enjoy what is beautiful and what is good, and to do as one pleases, when the things one wants to do are noble, intelligent, and generous. An education which does not cultivate the will, is an education that depraves the mind. It is a teacher's duty to teach the pupil how to will.

Ils y doivent travailler devant la majestueuse égalité des lois, qui interdit au riche comme au pauvre de coucher sous les ponts, de mendier dans les rues, et de voler du pain.

Man is a rational animal. He can think up a reason for anything he wants to believe.

Meilės kaltės bus atleistos, nes tyroj meilėj nėra nieko pikta. Bet jausmingoj meilėj yra tiek pat neapykantos, egoizmo ir apmaudo, kiek ir meilės.

اراده باعث تکوین و آفرینش دنیا بوده است ولی این آرزو است که مانع در هم ریختن آن می‌شود.

On croit mourir pour la patrie ; on meurt pour des industriels

We should adopt his principles and govern men as they are and not as what we'd like them to be.

تا خود مردم، و روح و روان یک قوم عوض نشوند، خداوند چیزی را در زندگی آنان تغییر نمی‌دهد.

ما ارزان‌تر از سخن کالایی نداریم و به بهای زندگی مردم هرقدر از آن صرف کنیم باز در معامله زیان نمی‌بریم.

And what, above all, I blame in you is that you have not married in compliance with the law and given children to the Republic, as every good citizen is bound to do.

Според мен, най-добри от книгите са тези, които дават най-много храна за размисъл, и при това на най-различни теми.

Може да се съмнявате във всичко, но условията на живота от това няма да се променят.

Šta može hladna i gola istina protiv blistavih čari laži?

In its majestic equality, the law forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges...

When it does not yield to the rudder," said he to them, "the ship yields to the rock.

I see only one solution," said St. Augustine. "The penguins will go to hell." "But they have no soul," observed St. Irenaeus. "It is a pity"" sighed Tertullian.

In every household the Revolution had emptied the cooking-pot.

I am crazy, I know, Thérèse. But who is not?

To know is nothing at all; to imagine is everything. Nothing exists except that which is imagined.

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 into another!

Μη δανείζετε ποτέ βιβλία σας σε φίλους. Κανένας δεν τα επιστρέφει. Τα μοναδικά βιβλία που έχουν μείνει στη βιβλιοθήκη μου είναι όσα μου εδάνεισαν κατά καιρούς οι φίλοι μου.

Slučajnost je Božji potpis kojim se On služi kada želi da ostane anoniman

Man is summed up in Art. All the rest is moonshine.

To be willing to die for an idea is to set a rather high price on conjecture.

The only exact knowledge there is, is the knowledge of the date of publication and the format of books.

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

They did not understand that war, which trained courage and founded the cities of barbarous and ignorant men, brings to victor himself but ruin and misery, and is nothing but a horrible and stupid crime when nations are united together by common bonds of art, science, and trade.

Within every one of us, there lives both a Don Quixote and a Sancho Panza to whom we hearken by turns; and though Sancho most persuades us, it is Don Quixote that we find ourselves obliged to admire.

Ha egy írónak folyton óvatosnak kell lennie, ha hithű katolikus módjára kell élnie, ha ma kell hasznot hajtania, ha nem ostorozhat mindenkit, mint Swift, ha nem kacaghat mindenen, mint Anatole France, akkor nem születik "ércnél maradandóbb" irodalom, csak papírtenger, újsághalom, amit csak ma olvasnak, de holnap már bűzlő szappanokat csomagolnak bele. (Jevgenyij Zamjatyin Félek c. 1920-as cikkéből)

Take care, father," said Bulloch gently, "that what you call murder and robbery may not really be war and conquest, those sacred foundations of empires, those sources of all human virtues and all human greatness.

But on what can intelligence sharpen its wits, in a country where the climate is soft and existence made easy? Even here, where necessity calls for intellectual activity, nothing is rarer than a person who thinks.

Ignorance is the necessary condition, i do not say of happiness, but of life itself. If we knew everything, we could not endure existence a single hour. The sentiments that make it sweet to us, or at any rate tolerable, spring from a falsehood, and are fed on illusions. If, like God, a man possessed the truth, the sole and perfect truth, and once let it escape out of his hands, the world would be annihilated there and then, and the universe melt away instantly like a shadow.

For all armies are the finest in the world. The second finest army, if one could exist, would be in a notoriously inferior position; it would be certain to be beaten. It ought to be disbanded at once. Therefore, all armies are the finest in the world.

But don't you ever tell me the Revolution will bring equality, because men'll never be equal. It's just not possible. They can turn the country upside down and inside out, there'll always be the big people and the little people, the fat ones and the thin ones.

For our miserable species would never lavish worship on a just and benevolent God from whom they had nothing to fear; they would only feel an empty and thankless gratitude for their benefits. Without purgatory and hell, your God would indeed be a useless creature.

think Him limited, even very limited. I no longer believe Him to be the only God. For a long time He did not believe it Himself; in the beginning He was a polytheist; later, His pride and the flattery of His worshippers made Him a monotheist. His ideas have little connection; He is less powerful than He is thought to be. And, to speak candidly, He is not so much a god as a vain and ignorant demiurge.

Had I realized while on Earth," he said, "that Hell was such a delightful place, I should have put more faith in the teachings of religion. As it was, I actually doubted its existence. A foolish error, cherie. I am pleased to say that you have converted me completely." "I, too," observed Mr. Hamilton, helping himself to wine, "was something of an unbeliever in my time, and while never quite an atheist, like my arch-enemy Jefferson, I was still inclined to look upon Satan as merely a myth. Imagine my satisfaction to find him ruling a monarchy! You know I spent the greater part of my earthly existence fighting Mr. Jefferson and his absurd democratic ideas and now look at the damn country! Run by morons!

But canst thou only die, withered embryo, foetus steeped in gall and scalding tears? Miserable abortion, dost thou think thou canst taste death, thou who hast never known life? If only God exists, that he may damn me. I hope for it. I wish it. God, I hate Thee! dost Thou hear? Overwhelm me with Thy damnation. To compel Thee to, I spit in Thy face. I must find an eternal hell, to exhaust the eternity of rage which consumes me.

After the usual politeness, the Citizen Brotteaux resumed the thread of his discourse: 'Those who make a trade out of foretelling the future rarely grow rich. Their attempts to deceive are too easily found out and arouse detestation. And yet it would be necessary to detest them much, much more if they foretold the future correctly. 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.

Nature teaches us to devour each other and gives us the example of all the crimes and all the vices which the social state corrects or conceals. We should love virtue; but it is well to know that this is simply and solely a convenient expedient invented by men in order to live comfortably together. What we call morality is merely a desperate enterprise, a forlorn hope, on the part of our fellow creatures to reverse the order of the universe, which is strife and murder, the blind interplay of hostile forces. She destroys herself, and the more I think of things, the more convinced I am that the universe is mad. Theologians and philosophers, who make God the author of Nature and the architect of the universe, show Him to us as illogical and ill-conditioned. They declare Him benevolent, because they are afraid of Him, but they are forced to admit that His acts are atrocious. They attribute a malignity to him seldom to be found even in mankind. And that is how they get human beings to adore Him. For our miserable race would never lavish worship on just and benevolent deities from which they would have nothing to fear; they would feel only a barren gratitude for their benefits. Without purgatory and hell, your good God would be a mighty poor creature.

He left Penguinia impoverished and depopulated. The flower of the insula perished in his wars. At the time of his fall there were left in our country none but the hunchbacks and cripples from whom we are descended. But he gave us glory." "He made you pay dearly for it!" "Glory never costs too much," replied my guide.

But the power of love itself weakens and gradually becomes lost with age, like all the other energies of man.

'Une paisible indifference Est la plus sage de vertus.' 'The most wise of the virtues is a calm indifference

To be the least wise in order to become the most wise--this is precisely what those Buddhists are aiming at without knowing it.

Cercando di istruirlo, non farà altro che umiliarlo e affaticarlo. Non tenti d’illuminare la sua ignoranza, se non vuole che l’accusi d’insultare le sue convinzioni.

«I morti non hanno altra vita all’infuori di quella che i vivi attribuiscono loro»

«Signori, i pinguini sono malcontenti del nuovo regime, perché, anche se ne traggono profitto, è naturale per gli uomini lamentarsi della propria condizione.

O mínimo que podemos fazer é adular um pouco as pessoas que são mandadas a deixar-se matar. É a maneira mais barata de pagar-lhes pela tarefa.

Os povos civilizados são como os cães de caça. Um instinto corrupto os incita a destruir sem proveito nem razão.

Não concebo por que misturam, nesse caso, considerações políticas e paixões partidárias. Ele é superior a tudo isso, pois que é uma questão moral.

Eu já não encontro tanto prazer, confesso, em ver essa gente elegante, depois que uma máquina pôs em movimento o fanatismo estúpido e a obtusa crueldade desses pequenos cérebros.

طفل تعجب می‌کند، جوان خشمناک می‌گردد، ولی پیر جهان‌دیده با نگاه خونسرد به این دنیا نظر می‌کند، از حق و ناحق نمی‌جوشد و از خوب و بد چشم‌می‌پوشد.

سربازان در همه جای دنیا از ترس مردن، ولی نه به‌دست دشمن بلکه به‌دست فرماندهان خود بجنگ رفته‌اند.

مسیحیت جامعه رومی را عوض نکرد بلکه جامعه رومی بود که مسیحیت را به وجود آورد، و خواسته‌های درونی مردم روم بود که به‌صورت احکام آسمانی به مردم تعلیم گردید.

چگونه می‌توان عقل سلیم و اندیشه مستقیم داشت و به خیال خوشبخت ساختن بشر افتاد؟

این عادت است که می‌تواند احساسات مشترک در انسان‌ها تولید نماید نه استدلال، زیرا استدلال مایه تفرقه است.

ظاهر اشرافی وجود دارد ولی باطن اشرافی وجود ندارد، آنچه آدمیان را از هم مشخص می‌سازد و تفرقه بین افراد بشر می‌اندازد عقاید و اندیشه‌ها و شور باطنی افراد است نه زندگانی ظاهری.

در نظر من هر سرباز که تفنگ به‌دست گرفت قهرمان است و هر کس که کلاه نظامی به سر گذاشت قهرمان بزرگ است، کسی را که به پیشواز مرگ می‌فرستند طبعاً باید با این الفاظ فریب بدهند و تشویق بکنند.

Quanto aos romanos, não eram essencialmente militares, pois que fizeram conquistas vantajosas e duráveis, ao contrário dos verdadeiros militares, que tomam tudo e nada conservam, como os franceses.

The Christian state," said St. Cornelius, "is not without serious inconveniences for a penguin. In it the birds are obliged to work out their own salvation. How can they succeed? The habits of birds are, in many points, contrary to the commandments of the Church, and the penguins have no reason for changing theirs. I mean that they are not intelligent enough to give up their present habits and assume better.

In point of fact, Christianity has run contrary to art in so much as it has not favoured the study of the nude. Art is the representation of nature, and nature is pre-eminently the human body; it is the nude.

He moved on from Anatole France to the eighteenth-century philosophers, though not to Rousseau. Perhaps this was because one side of him - the side easily moved by passion - was too close to Rousseau. Instead, he approached the author of 'Candide', who was closer to another side of him - the cool and richly intellectual side. At twenty-nine, life no longer held any brightness for him, but Voltaire supplied him with man-made wings. Spreading these man-made wings, he soared with ease into the sky. The higher he flew, the farther below him sank the joys and sorrows of a life bathed in the light of intellect. Dropping ironies and smiles upon the shabby towns below, he climbed through the open sky, straight for the sun - as if he had forgotten about that ancient Greek who plunged to his death in the ocean when his man-made wings were singed by the sun.

Quando o serviço é obrigatório para todos, quando todos os cidadãos são soldados, ou foram, todas as forças sociais se acham dispostos de maneira a proteger o poder, ou até mesmo sua ausência, como se viu na França.

— Durante minha longa carreira de magistrado, jamais tive conhecimento de um erro judiciário. — Eis aí uma declaração tranquilizadora - disse o senhor de Terremondre. — E que a mim me gela de pavor - murmurou monsieur Bergeret.

You see, Dimitri and I, we are both suffering from ennui! We have still the match-boxes. But at last one gets tired even of match-boxes. Besides, our collection will soon be complete. And then what are we going to do?" 'Oh, Madame!' I exclaimed, touched by the moral unhappiness of this pretty person, 'if you only had a son, then you would know what to do. You would then learn the purpose of your life, and your thoughts would become at once more serious and yet more cheerful.' 'But I have a son,' she replied. 'He is a big boy; he is eleven years old, and he suffers from ennui like the rest of us. Yes, my George has ennui, too; he is tired of everything. It is very wretched.

Monsieur Bergeret, com o nariz num livro grosso, pronunciou lentamente estas palavras: "A liberdade não tinha em seu favor senão uma ínfima minoria de pessoas instruídas. Quase o clero inteiro, os generais, a plebe ignara e fanática queriam um senhor." — Que está dizendo? – perguntou o senhor Mazure, agitado. — Nada – respondeu monsieur Bergeret. — Leio um capítulo da história da Espanha. O quadro dos costumes públicos ao tempo da restauração de Fernando VII.

My children, it is not enough to love passionately; you must also love well. A passionate love is good doubtless, but a beautiful love is better. May you have as much strength as gentleness; may it lack nothing, not even forbearance, and let even a little compassion be mingled with it. You are young, fair and good; but you are human, and because of this capable of much suffering. If then something of compassion does not enter into the feelings you have one for the other, these feelings will not always befit all the circumstances of your life together; they will be like festive robes that will not shield you from wind and rain. We love truly only those we love even in their weakness and their poverty. To forbear, to forgive, to console, that alone is the science of love.

I awaited Signor Polizzi's reply with ill-contained impatience. I could not even remain quiet; I would make sudden nervous gestures - open books and violent close them again. One day I happened to upset a book with my elbow - a volume of Moréri. Hamilcar, who was washing himself, suddenly stopped, and looked angrily at me, with his paw over his ear. Was this the tumultuous existence he must expect under my roof? Had there not been a tacit understanding between us that we should live a peaceful life? I had broken the covenant.

Aristotle, we are invariably told, was "antiquity's most brilliant intellect," and the explanation of this weird assertion, I believe, is best summarized in Anatole France's words: The books that everybody admires are the books that nobody reads. But on taking the trouble to delve in Aristotle's writings, a somewhat different picture emerges. His ignorance of mathematics and physics, compared to the Greeks of his time, far surpasses the ignorance exhibited by this tireless and tiresome writer in the many subjects that he felt himself called upon to discuss.

The two angels found her alone, reading. As they drew near she lifted her great eyes whose deeps of molten gold little sparks of light were forever a-dance. Her brows were contracted into that austere fold which we see on the Pythian Apollo; her nose was perfect and descended without a curve; her lips were compressed and imparted a disdainful and supercilious air to her whole countenance. Her tawny hair, with its gleaming lights, was carelessly adorned with the tattered remnants of a huge bird of prey, her garments lay about her in dark and shapeless folds. She was leaning her chin on an ill-tended hand.

— Mas, sendo o Exército uma administração como a Agricultura, as Finanças ou a Instrução Pública, não se concebe como possa existir uma justiça militar, quando não existe uma justiça agrícola, nem justiça financeira, nem justiça universitária. Toda justiça privada está em oposição aos princípios do direito moderno.

To clothe the penguins is a very serious business. At present when a penguin desires a penguin he knows precisely what he desires and his lust is limited by an exact knowledge of its object. At this moment two or three couples of penguins are making love on the beach. See with what simplicity! No one pays any attention and the actors themselves do not seem to be greatly preoccupied. But when the female penguins are clothed, the male penguin will not form so exact a notion of what it is that attracts him to them. His indeterminate desires will fly out into all sorts of dreams and illusions; in short, father, he will know love and its mad torments. And all the time the female penguins will cast down their eyes and bite their lips, and take on airs as if they kept a treasure under their clothes! . . . what a pity!

— Mas se tocarem nos conselhos de guerra – exclamou o senhor de Terremondre –, será o fim do Exército, será o fim do país! Monsieur Bergeret formulou esta resposta: — Quando os padres e os grão-senhores foram privados do direito de enforcar os vilões, acreditou-se que era o fim de tudo. Mas, depressa, viu-se nascer uma nova ordem, superior à antiga. Falo em submeter o soldado, no tempo de paz, ao direito comum.

The Communion controversy of the ninth century was merely the signal for a much greater controversy that divided the minds of men for centuries and had incalculable consequences. This was the conflict between nominalism and realism. By nominalism is meant that school which asserted that the so-called universals, namely generic or universal concepts such as beauty, goodness, animal, man, etc., are nothing but nomina, names, or words, derisively called flatus vocis. Anatole France says: “What is thinking? And how does one think? We think with words; that in itself is sensual and brings us back to nature. Think of it! A metaphysician has nothing with which to construct his world system except the perfected cries of monkeys and dogs.”10 This is extreme nominalism, as it is when Nietzsche says that reason is “speech metaphysics.

Puesto que la riqueza y la civilización producen motivos de guerra como la pobreza y la barbarie, y puesto que la locura y la maldad de los hombres son incorregibles, se puede realizar una acción meritoria. Un hombre prudente amontonará bastante dinamita para hacer estallar el planeta, y cuando se desparramen sus fragmentos por el espacio se habrá conseguido en el Universo una mejora imperceptible, se habrá dado una satisfacción a la conciencia universal, que indudablemente no existe.

We ought to love virtue; but it is well to realize that we ought to only because it is a convenient expedient invented by men in order that they may live comfortably together. What we call morality is simply and solely a desperate enterprise, a forlorn hope on the part of our fellow men to reverse the order of the Universe, which is constant strife and murder, blind, ceaseless and implacable. All is self-destruction, and the more I think of it, the more I am convinced that the the Universe is mad.

Todos os progressos são incertos e lentos, e não raro acompanhados de movimentos retrógrados. A marcha em direção a uma melhor ordem das coisas é hesitante e confusa. Forças numerosas e profundas ligam o homem ao passado e fazem-no apegar-se aos erros, às superstições, aos preconceitos e às barbaridades, como valiosos penhores de segurança. qualquer novidade salutar os assusta. Ele é um imitador por prudência, e não ousa abandonar o abrigo vacilante que protegeu seus pais e que há de desabar sobre ele.

-Me permito darle un consejo. Si quiere usted que su obra sea bien acogida, no pierda ninguna ocasión de alabar las virtudes que sirven de sostén a las sociedades, el respeto a las riquezas y los sentimientos piadosos, principalmente la resignación del pobre, que afianza el equilibrio social. Asegure que los orígenes de la propiedad, de la nobleza, de la gendarmería, sean tratados en su historia con todo el respeto que merecen semejantes instituciones; propale que se halla dispuesto a tomar en consideración lo sobrenatural cuando convenga, y así conseguirá el beneplácito de las personas decentes.

— O senhor sabe, meu caro mestre, que eu não sou um animal destruidor. Não tenho vocação para o militarismo. Tenho mesmo ideias humanitárias bem avançadas, e creio que a fraternidade dos povos será a obra do socialismo triunfante. Enfim, tenho amor à humanidade. No entanto, do momento em que me enfiam um fuzil na mão, sinto vontade de atirar em todo mundo. Está no sangue... (...) — O senhor não ignora, caro mestre – acrescentou –, o poder da sugestão. Basta entregar a um homem uma baioneta na ponta de um fuzil para que ele a enterre na barriga do primeiro que apareça e se torne, como diz, um herói.

«Non vedi, figliolo» esclamò, «quel pazzo furioso che sta strappando a morsi il naso dell’avversario, e quell’altro che schiaccia sotto un masso enorme la testa di una donna?» «Vedo», replicò Bulloch. «Stanno creando il diritto; fondano la proprietà; stabiliscono i princìpi della civiltà, le basi della società e le assise dello Stato.» «In che modo?» domandò il vegliardo. «Delimitando il proprio campo. Tale è l’origine di ogni sistema di disciplina. I vostri pinguini, maestro, stanno compiendo la più augusta delle funzioni: la loro opera sarà celebrata nei secoli dai legislatori, protetta e confermata dai magistrati.»

She denied everything, not to convince him, for he had seen them, but from expediency and good taste, and to avoid painful explanations. Hippolyte Ceres suffered all the tortures of jealousy. He admitted it to himself, he kept saying inwardly, “I am a strong man; I am clad in armour; but the wound is underneath, it is in my heart,” and turning towards his wife, who looked beautiful in her guilt, he would say: “It ought not to have been with him.” He was right — Eveline ought not to have loved in government circles. He suffered so much that he took up his revolver, exclaiming: “I will go and kill him!” But he remembered that a Minister of Commerce cannot kill his own Prime Minister, and he put his revolver back into his drawer.

«Ho udito bene?» chiese il professor Obnubile. «Un popolo industrioso come il vostro è impegnato in così tante guerre?» «Certo», rispose l’interprete. «Sono guerre industriali. I popoli che non hanno né commercio né industrie non sono costretti a fare la guerra, mentre per un popolo industrioso una politica di conquiste è indispensabile. Il numero delle nostre guerre aumenta necessariamente con l’attività produttiva. Quando una delle industrie non trova da smerciare i suoi prodotti, deve iniziare una guerra per aprirsi nuovi sbocchi. Quest’anno abbiamo avuto una guerra per il carbone, una per il rame, una per il cotone. Nella Terza Zelanda abbiamo ucciso i due terzi degli abitanti allo scopo di costringere gli altri ad acquistare i nostri ombrelli e le nostre bretelle.»

Sir," the monk addressed him, "I am thankful for what you are doing for me; but alas! it is of small moment to you whether I am grateful or no. May God account your act meritorious! That is of infinite concern for you. But God pays no heed to what is not done for his glory and is merely the outcome of purely natural virtue. Wherefore I beseech you, sir, to do for Him what you were led to do for me." "Father," answered Brotteaux, "never trouble yourself on this head and do not think of gratitude. What I am doing now, the merit of which you exaggerate,—is not done for any love of you; for indeed, albeit you are a lovable man, Father, I know you too little to love you. Nor yet do I act so for love of humanity; for I am not so simple as to think with 'Don Juan' that humanity has rights; indeed this prejudice, in a mind so emancipated as his, grieves me. I do it out of that selfishness which inspires mankind to perform all their deeds of generosity and self-sacrifice, by making them recognize themselves in all who are unfortunate, by disposing them to commiserate their own calamities in the calamities of others and by inciting them to offer help to a mortal resembling themselves in nature and destiny, so that they think they are succouring themselves in succouring him. I do it also for lack of anything better to do; for life is so desperately insipid we must find distraction at any cost, and benevolence is an amusement, of a mawkish sort, one indulges in for want of any more savoury; I do it out of pride and to get an advantage over you; I do it, in a word, as part of a system and to show you what an atheist is capable of.

-¿Por qué se preocupa de buscar documentos para componer su historia y no copia la más conocida, como es costumbre? Si ofrece usted un punto de vista nuevo, una idea original, si presenta hombres y sucesos a una luz desconocida, sorprenderá usted al lector, y al lector no le agradan las sorpresas, busca sólo en la Historia las tonterías que ya conoce. Si trata usted de instruirle, sólo conseguirá humillarle y desagradarle; si contradice usted sus engaños, dirá que insulta sus creencias. Los historiadores se copian los unos a los otros, con lo cual se ahorran molestias y evitan que los motejen por soberbios. Imítelos y no sea usted original. Un historiador original inspira siempre desconfianza, el desprecio y el hastío de los lectores. ¿Supone usted que yo me vería honrado y enaltecido como lo estoy, si en mis libros de historia hubiera dicho algo nuevo? Y ¿qué son las novedades? ¡Impertinencias!

Enquanto o Estado se contenta com os recursos que lhe fornecem os pobres, enquanto conta com subsídios bastantes que, com regularidade mecânica, lhe asseguram aqueles que trabalham com as próprias mãos, ele vive feliz, tranquilo, respeitado; os economistas e os financistas se aprazem em atestar-lhe a probidade; mas, do instante em que esse infeliz Estado, movido pela necessidade, faz menção de exigir dinheiro de quem o tem, e de tirar dos ricos alguma exígua contribuição, fazem-no sentir que ele comete um atentado odioso, que viola todos os direitos, que falta ao respeito com as coisas consagradas, que destrói o comércio e a indústria, que esmaga os pobres ao tocar nos opulentos. Não mais se dissimula seu descrédito. E ele fica entregue ao desprezo dos bons cidadãos. Entrementes, a ruína avança, lenta e infalivelmente. O Estado ameaçou as rendas. Está perdido. Os nossos ministros zombam de nós, falando do perigo clerical ou socialista. Não há senão um perigo, o perigo financeiro. A República começa a percebê-lo.

«Chiedo una guerra contro il governo della repubblica di Smeraldo», disse, «che ostacola insolentemente l’egemonia dei nostri salami e dei nostri prosciutti su tutti i mercati dell’universo.» «Chi è quel deputato?», chiese il dottor Obnubile. «È un salumiere.» «Ci sono obiezioni?» chiese il presidente. «Metto la proposta ai voti.» La guerra contro la repubblica di Smeraldo fu votata per alzata di mano a grande maggioranza. «Come?», esclamò Obnubile rivolto all’interprete. «Hanno approvato una guerra con tanta rapidità e indifferenza?» «Oh! È una guerra di poca importanza che costerà solo otto milioni di dollari.» «Ma le perdite...» «Le perdite sono comprese negli otto milioni di dollari.» Allora il dottor Obnubile si prese la testa fra le mani e pensò amaramente: «Visto che la ricchezza e la civiltà sono fonti di guerre, non meno della povertà e della barbarie, visto che la follia e la cattiveria degli uomini sono inguaribili, rimane solo una buona azione da compiere. Il saggio ammucchierà tanta dinamite quanto basta a far saltare in aria questo pianeta. Quando volerà in pezzi nello spazio, un miglioramento impercettibile si sarà verificato nell’universo e sarà concessa una soddisfazione alla coscienza universale, che d’altra parte non esiste».