Anatole France

"The reader is to make such concession to the author as the author has earned by his intelligence and his art."

"Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished."

"A book is a mirror: if an ass looks into it you cannot expect an apostle to look out."

"The rare privilege of the dead is that they need not listen to advice."

"Until one has loved an animal, a part of one's soul remains unawakened."

"It is human nature to think wisely and to act foolishly."

"Politics is the art of preventing people from minding their own business."

"Existence is not only meager and happy, but also miserable and deplorable."

"The principle of true courtesy consists in treating all people with the respect due to them."

"No government has the right to prevent its citizens from thinking freely."

"Every nation ridicules other nations, and all are right."

"Music is the arithmetic of sounds as optics is the geometry of light."

"There is a touch of divinity even in brutes, and a occult relation between them and us."

"The reader is never quite satisfied until the author surprises him."

"In its essence, politics is nothing but morality applied to public affairs."

"A criminal is merely a person who has been raised to face too many temptations."

"It is unwise to be too sure of one's own wisdom."

"The charm of life, if it exist at all, must consist in earnestness."

"It is not customary to love what one has not admired."

"The illiterate of the future are not those who cannot read or write, but those who cannot learn and relearn."

"War is a calamity which grows worse the longer it is prolonged."

"A great reader is a great user of his own mind."

"The truth is that there is no actual truth, only perspectives."

"In the matter of morals, the tendency of our time is to exaggerate the ascetic side."

"Every good thing has a shadow side; every shadow has a good side."

"The test of the first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function."

"To accomplish great things we must not only act, but also dream."

"We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools."

"The duty of an author is to be read."

"Nothing in the world is permanent, and we're foolish when we ask anything to last, but surely we're still more foolish not to take delight in it while we have it."