Anatole France
It is well for the heart to be naive and for the mind not to be.Collection: Heart
Intelligent women always marry foolsCollection: Intelligent
The first virtue of all really great men is that they are sincere. They eradicate hypocrisy from their hearts.Collection: Positive
The Future is hidden even from those who are forging it.Collection: Inspirational
Nature, in her indifference, makes no distinction between good and evil.Collection: Nature
What men call civilization is the condition of present customs; what they call barbarism, the condition of past ones.Collection: Past
The impotence of God is infinite.Collection: God
A woman without breasts is like a bed without pillows.Collection: Sex
Justice is the means by which established injustices are sanctionedCollection: Mean
Without the Utopians of other times, men would still live in caves, miserable and naked. It was Utopians who traced the lines of the first City.....Out of generous dreams come beneficial realities. Utopia is the principle of all progress, and the essay into a better future.Collection: Inspirational
We chase dreams and embrace shadows.Collection: Dream
We thank God for having created this world, and praise Him for having made another, quite different one, where the wrongs of this one are corrected.Collection: Thank God
It is human nature to think wisely and to act in an absurd fashion.Collection: Fashion
Awaken people's curiosity. It is enough to open minds, do not overload them. Put there just a spark.Collection: Inspirational
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.Collection: Ignorance
Time deals gently only with those who take it gently.Collection: Time
Lack of understanding is a great power. Sometimes it enables men to conquer the world.Collection: Ignorance
It is by believing in roses that you make them bloom.Collection: Believe
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.Collection: Girl
True education is the ability to discern the difference between what you do know and what you don't.Collection: Differences
Word-carpentry is like any other kind of carpentry: you must join your sentences smoothly.Collection: Kind
So long as society is founded on injustice, the function of the laws will be to defend injustice. And the more unjust they are the more respectable they will seem.Collection: Law
A good critic is the man who describes his adventures among masterpieces.Collection: Adventure
In order that knowledge be properly digested it must have been swallowed with a good appetite.Collection: Order
He flattered himself on being a man without any prejudices; and this pretension itself is a very great prejudice.Collection: Men
An old philosopher said to Monsieur Coignard, a Reverend Father: 'You are a pig!' To which Abad Coignard answered: 'You flatter me, sir. But unfortunately, I'm only a man.'Collection: Father
Never lend books, for no one ever returns them.Collection: Reading