Anatole France
Existence would be intolerable if we were never to dream.
When a thing has been said and well, have no scruple. Take it and copy it.
To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream; not only plan, but also believe.
If fifty million people say a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing.
People who have no weaknesses are terrible; there is no way of taking advantage of them.
The whole art of teaching is only the art of awakening the natural curiosity of young minds for the purpose of satisfying it afterwards.
A person is never happy except at the price of some ignorance.
To accomplish great things, we must not only act but also dream, not only plan but also believe.
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.
Chance is perhaps the pseudonym of God when he does not wish to sign his work.
The finest words in the world are only vain sounds if you cannot understand them.
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.
It is better to understand little than to misunderstand a lot.
The average man, who does not know what to do with his life, wants another one which will last forever.
It is by acts and not by ideas that people live.
To accomplish great things, we must dream as well as act.
When a thing has been said, and said well, have no scruple. Take it and copy it.
Man is so made that he can only find relaxation from one kind of labor by taking up another.
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.
Never lend books - nobody ever returns them; the only books I have in my library are those which people have lent me.
To die for an idea is to place a pretty high price upon conjectures.
Ignorance is a necessary condition of human happiness, and it must be owned that in most cases we fulfill it well. We know almost nothing about ourselves; absolutely nothing about our neighbors. Ignorance constitutes our peace of mind; self- deception our felicity.
I love reason, but I am no fanatic in my love. Reason is our guide and beacon-light; but when you have made a divinity of it, it will blind you and instigate you to crime.
Innocence more often than not is a piece of good fortune rather than a virtue.
If a million people say a foolish thing, is it still a foolish thing.
...it is not by reflection and intelligence, but by perception, that the highest and purest truths are attained.
Who ever enters here, honors me; who ever does not-- pleases me.
The people who have no weakness are terrible; there is no way of taking advantage of them.
He who lives little, changes little.
. . .everyone took an interest in the conversation, for each one was interested in what he or she said.
No one gives as much as he who gives hope.
Be gentle and learn how to suffer. When one suffers patiently, one suffers less.
Our pains are no excuse for slandering the world.
To know is nothing at all; to imagine is everything.
