Literary Birthday – 16 April – Anatole France

Anatole France was born on 16 April 1844 and died on 12 October 1924.

Anatole France Quotes

1. 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.
2. It is human nature to think wisely and act in an absurd fashion.
3. To accomplish great things we must not only act, but also dream; not only plan, but also believe.
4. The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself a fool.
5. Nine tenths of education is encouragement.
6. The truth is that life is delicious, horrible, charming, frightful, sweet, bitter, and that is everything.
7. If a million people say a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing.
8. People who have no weaknesses are terrible; there is no way of taking advantage of them.
9. Stupidity is far more dangerous than evil, for evil takes a break from time to time, stupidity does not.
10. What frightens us most in a madman is his sane conversation.
11. All the good writers of confessions, from Augustine onwards, are men who are still a little in love with their sins.
12. One thing above all gives charm to men’s thoughts, and this is unrest. A mind that is not uneasy irritates and bores me.

Anatole France was a French poet, journalist, and novelist. The son of a bookseller, France, a bibliophile, spent most of his life around books. He began his literary career as a poet and a journalist. In 1869, Le Parnasse contemporain published one of his poems, ‘La Part de Madeleine’. In 1876, he was appointed librarian for the French Senate. He was elected a member of the Académie française, and won the 1921 Nobel Prize for Literature ‘in recognition of his brilliant literary achievements, characterized as they are by a nobility of style, a profound human sympathy, grace, and a true Gallic temperament’. He is the author of The Gods Will Have Blood.

Source for Image: Photographer : Wilhelm Benque. Tucker Collection, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

by Amanda Patterson

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