Anatole France (1844–1924) was one of France’s most popular novelists and winner the 1921 Nobel Prize for Literature.
He was born François-Anatole Thibault but signed his works “Anatole France” as a tribute to his father’s bookstore in Paris. That bookstore, named Librairie de France, specialized in literature on the French Revolution. Many prominent French scholars frequented this bookstore and influenced Anatole’s philosophy.
Though Anatole mostly wrote historical and social novels, he’s best remembered for the fantasy novel L’Île des Pingouins (Penguin Island; 1908) It features an imaginary penguin civilization where a blind and somewhat deaf abbot mistakenly baptizes the penguins who then transform into human beings. Penguin Island is a satire on society and human nature in which Anatole lampooned morality, traditions, and the origin of law and religion.
Anatole France’s other prominent novels include Les dieux ont soif (The Gods Are Athirst, 1912) and La Révolte des anges (The Revolt of Angels, 1914.)
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It is in the ability to deceive oneself that the greatest talent is shown.
—Anatole France
Topics: Deception, Talent
Our passions are ourselves.
—Anatole France
Topics: Enthusiasm
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.
—Anatole France
Topics: Equality
It is not customary to love what one has.
—Anatole France
Topics: Gratitude, Blessings, Appreciation
People who have no weaknesses are terrible; there is no way of taking advantage of them.
—Anatole France
Topics: Weakness
That man is prudent who neither hopes nor fears anything from the uncertain events of the future.
—Anatole France
Topics: Future, Events, The Future
Of all the ways of defining man, the worst is the one which makes him out to be a rational animal.
—Anatole France
Topics: Humanity, Man
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
Topics: Literature
We reproach people for talking about themselves, but it is the subject they treat best.
—Anatole France
Topics: Self-Discovery
Nine tenths of education is encouragement.
—Anatole France
Topics: Education, Encouragement
Man is so made that he can only find relaxation from one kind of labor by taking up another.
—Anatole France
Topics: Work, Relaxation
To accomplish great things, we must not only act but also dream. Not only plan but also believe.
—Anatole France
The greatest virtue of man is perhaps curiosity.
—Anatole France
Topics: Virtue
One must never lose time in vainly regretting the past nor complaining against the changes which cause us discomfort, for change is the very essence of life.
—Anatole France
If the path be beautiful, let us not ask where it leads.
—Anatole France
Topics: One liners
I prefer the folly of enthusiasm to the indifference of wisdom.
—Anatole France
Topics: Enthusiasm, Knowledge
Time deals gently only with those who take it gently.
—Anatole France
Topics: Resilience, Patience
Never lend books, for no one ever returns them; the only books I have in my library are those which people have lent me.
—Anatole France
Topics: One liners, Unhappiness
It is well for the heart to be naive and for the mind not to be.
—Anatole France
Topics: Knowledge, Innocence
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
Topics: Peace, War
The future is hidden even from those who make it.
—Anatole France
Topics: Tomorrow, The Future
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.
—Anatole France
Topics: Wealth, Justice, Laws, Rain
The books that everybody admires are those that nobody reads.
—Anatole France
Topics: Books, Reading
When a thing has been said and said well, have no scruple. Take it and copy it.
—Anatole France
To imagine is everything, to know is nothing at all.
—Anatole France
Topics: Imagination
It is human nature to think wisely and act foolishly.
—Anatole France
Topics: Wisdom, Human Nature, Humanity
Innocence most often is a good fortune and not a virtue.
—Anatole France
Topics: Perspective, Innocence
It is by acts and not by ideas that people live.
—Anatole France
Topics: Action
A person is never happy except at the price of some ignorance.
—Anatole France
Topics: Ignorance
We do not know what to do with this short life, but we want another that will be eternal.
—Anatole France
Topics: Life
Night has come! Leaning from the window, we gaze at the vast sombre stretch of the city below us, pierced with multitudinous points of light. Jeanne presses her hand to her forehead as she leans upon the window-bar, and seems a little sad. And I say to myself as I watch her: All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy; for what we leave behind us is a part of ourselves: we must die in one life before we can enter into another!
And as if answering my thought, the young girl murmurs to me.
My guardian, I am so happy; and still I feel as if I wanted to cry!
—Anatole France
Topics: Change
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