309 Quotes by Anatole France

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.

Do not try to satisfy your vanity by teaching a great many things. Awaken people’s curiosity. It is enough to open minds; do not overload them. Put there just a spark. If there is some good inflammable stuff, it will catch fire.

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

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

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

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.

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.

What can be more foolish than to think that all this rare fabric of heaven and earth could come by chance, when all the skill of art is not able to make an oyster!

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