Anatole France

"The mind is a prison, and we are both the jailer and the prisoner."

"Music is the language of the soul, and the soul is often incoherent."

"To be motivated is to be enslaved by your own ambitions."

"The only inspiration worth having is the kind that demands you work yourself to death."

"Family is what you cannot escape, which makes it either a blessing or a curse."

"The pursuit of happiness is the most unhappy of all pursuits."

"Nature is beautiful until you have to live in it."

"To create is to destroy; to destroy is sometimes to create."

"Leadership is the art of convincing others to do what you want them to do."

"Work is the only thing that makes idleness bearable."

"Dreams are the mind's vacation, and the mind is a terrible travel companion."

"The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas and function anyway."

"Strength is not the absence of fear but the presence of will."

"Fear is the most honest of all emotions, which is why we hide it."

"Justice is what we demand for ourselves and deny to others."

"To die is to stop suffering, unless you believe in an afterlife."

"The good critic is he who relates the adventures of his soul among masterpieces."

"To understand is to forgive, even oneself."

"A person is never happy except at the price of some ignorance."

"The remarkable thing about Shakespeare is that he is really very good—in spite of all the people who say he is very good."

"We have better memories of the future than of the past."

"The human species is made up of two distinct races, the men who borrow, and the men who lend."

"An education is the most democratic thing we can provide."

"The ability to change is the mark of excellence."

"All change is not growth, as all movement is not forward."

"To live is to choose, and to choose is to take a risk."

"Man's greatest strength is his imagination."

"The secret of being appreciated is to make yourself useful."

"Knowledge is the understanding of things, not merely the knowing of them."

"A friend is someone who knows all about you and still loves you."