Anatole France

"Existence is a series of footnotes to a vast, unfinished argument."

"The secret source of humor itself is not joy but sorrow."

"One cannot be deeply responsive to the world without being hurt very often."

"Patriotism is the willingness to kill and be killed for trivial reasons."

"The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges."

"Democracy is the art of running the circus from the monkey cage."

"An educated man is a man with certain tastes."

"Nature has no enemies, only men of ignorance."

"Those who have much are often greedy; those who have little always share."

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

"The most beautiful things are those that madness prompts and reason writes."

"War is not fought by soldiers, but by humanity itself."

"Books are the quietest and most constant of friends."

"I think that God in creating man somewhat overestimated his ability."

"The truth is like a lion; you don't have to defend it. Let it loose; it will defend itself."

"To love is to prefer another to oneself."

"What is called progress is the exchange of one nuisance for another nuisance."

"We are all silly, and folly is not to be cured by grave moralizing."

"The finest of all pleasures is that of learning."

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

"We are made wise not by the recollection of our past, but by the responsibility for our future."

"I prefer the folly of enthusiasm to the indifference of wisdom."

"Great is our admiration of the orator who speaks with fluency and discretion."

"The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom and the end of wisdom is the fear of God."

"The human race is faced with a cruel choice: give up its cherished postulates and discard the mode of living to which the whole social order is adjusted, or forfeit the prospect of survival."

"I have no country; the whole world is my world."

"The sum of knowledge is never contained in any one book."

"Time is a great teacher, but unfortunately it kills all its pupils."

"To be happy, we must not be too concerned with others."

"Artists must have their freedom to express themselves, no matter what."