France

Explore 470 quotes by people from France

It is splendid to be a great writer, to put men into the frying pan of your words and make them pop like chestnuts.

Gustave Flaubert

More information about this quote

Topic

Pleasures of writing Writing

Author

Gustave Flaubert

Source

Letters of Gustave Flaubert

Medium

Letter

Statement Type

Metaphor, analogy and simile

Language

French

Time

1851 1850s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Flaubert, Gustave. Letter to Louise Colet. 3 Nov. 1851.

Current Citation

Flaubert, Gustave. The Letters of Gustave Flaubert 1830-1857, translated and edited by Francis Steegmuller. Faber and Faber, 1981.

Life is much more fun when you have to worry about money coming in.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir

More information about this quote

Topic

Making a living Personal finances Work

Speaker

Pierre-Auguste Renoir

Source

Renoir: His Life, Art and Letters

Genre

Biography

Statement Type

Paradox

Language

French

Authentication Score 1

Citation

White, Barbara Ehrlich. Renoir: His Life, Art, and Letters. Harry N. Abrams, 1984.

I have bathed in the Poem of the Sea, steeped in
Stars, and milky, devouring the green azures.

Arthur Rimbaud

More information about this quote

Topic

Ocean and sea

Author

Arthur Rimbaud

Source

The Drunken Boat

Medium

Poem

Language

French

Time

1871 1870s 19th century

Authentication Score 1

Original Citation

Rimbaud, Arthur. "Le Bateau Ivre [The Drunken Boat]." Les Poetes Maudits, edited by Paul Verlaine. Paris, 1884.

Current Citation

Rimbaud, Arthur. "Le bateau ivre/The Drunken Boat." Rimbaud: Complete Works, Selected Letters, a Bilingual Edition, translated by Wallace Fowlie. University of Chicago Press, 2005.

In art, there are only two types of people: revolutionaries and plagiarists.

Paul Gauguin

More information about this quote

Topic

Artists Art

Author

Paul Gauguin

Source

Letters of Paul Gauguin

Medium

Letter

Language

French

Time

1895 1890s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Gauguin, Paul. "Un lettre de paul gauguin: a propos de sevres et du demier." Le Soir, 25 Apr. 1895.

Current Citation

Gauguin, Paul. The Writings of a Savage, translated by Eleanor Levieux, edited by Daniel Guérin. Da Capo Press, 1996.

We need greater virtues to sustain good fortune than bad.

François de La Rochefoucauld

Reflections

Buy Reflections at Amazon Buy Reflections at Amazon
Read Reflections at Project Gutenberg

More information about this quote

Topic

Tests of character Character

Author

François de La Rochefoucauld

Source

Reflections

Medium

Epigram

Language

French

Time

1678 1670s 17th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

La Rochefoucauld, Francois. Reflexions ou sentences et maximes morales [Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims]. c. 1665.

Current Citation

La Rochefoucauld, Francois. Collected Maxims and Other Reflections, translated by E. H. and A. M. Blackmore and Francine Giguere. Oxford University Press, 2008.

Despots themselves do not deny that freedom is excellent; only they desire it for themselves alone, and they maintain that everyone else is altogether unworthy of it.

Alexis de Tocqueville

The Ancien Regime and the Revolution

Buy The Ancien Regime and the Revolution at Amazon Buy The Ancien Regime and the Revolution at Amazon

More information about this quote

Topic

Freedom Political hypocrisy Tyranny

Author

Alexis de Tocqueville

Source

The Ancien Regime and the Revolution

Genre

Historical literature Political literature

Language

French

Time

1856 1850s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Tocqueville, Alexis De. L'Ancien Régime et la Révolution [The Ancien Régime and the Revolution]. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1856, foreward.

Current Citation

Tocqueville, Alexis De. The Ancien Regime and the Revolution, translated by Gerald Bevan. Penguin Classics, 2008, foreward.

It is not always by going from bad to worse that a society falls into revolution... The social order destroyed by a revolution is almost always better than that which immediately preceded it, and experience shows that the most dangerous moment for a bad government is generally that in which it sets about reform.

Alexis de Tocqueville

The Ancien Regime and the Revolution

Buy The Ancien Regime and the Revolution at Amazon Buy The Ancien Regime and the Revolution at Amazon

More information about this quote

Topic

Conditions for revolution

Author

Alexis de Tocqueville

Source

The Ancien Regime and the Revolution

Genre

Historical literature Political literature

Language

French

Time

1856 1850s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Tocqueville, Alexis De. L'Ancien Régime et la Révolution [The Ancien Régime and the Revolution]. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1856, bk. 3, ch. 4.

Current Citation

Tocqueville, Alexis De. The Ancien Regime and the Revolution, translated by Gerald Bevan. Penguin Classics, 2008, bk. 3, ch. 4.

Love comes from blindness,
Friendship comes from knowledge.

Roger de Rabutin, Comte de Bussy

More information about this quote

Topic

Love and friendship Love Friendship

Author

Roger de Rabutin, Comte de Bussy

Source

Histoire Amoureuse des Gaules: Maximes d'Amour.

Medium

Poem

Language

French

Time

1665 1660s 17th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

De Bussy-Rabutin, Roger. Histoire Amoureuse des Gaules [Love history of the Gauls]. Cork: Editions à la Croix de Malte, 1665.

Truth exists; only lies are invented.

Georges Braque

More information about this quote

Topic

Truth and lies Truth Lies

Author

Georges Braque

Source

Journals of Georges Braque

Medium

Personal journal

Language

French

Time

1952 1950s 20th century

Authentication Score 1

Original Citation

Braque, Georges. Le Jour et la nuit: Cahiers 1917-52. Gallimard, 1952.

Current Citation

Braque, Georges. Illustrated Notebooks: 1917-1955, translated by Stanley Appelbaum. Dover Publications, 1971.

You think you are dying for your country; you die for the industrialists.

Anatole France

More information about this quote

Topic

Anti-war Dying for one's country Patriotism War

Author

Anatole France

Source

L' Humanite

Medium

Newspaper

Language

French

Time

1922 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

France, Anatole. "Une Lettre D'Anatole France." L'Humanite, 18 July 1922.

Sex loses all its power and magic when it becomes explicit, mechanical, overdone, when it becomes a mechanistic obsession. It becomes a bore.

Anaïs Nin

More information about this quote

Topic

Sex

Author

Anaïs Nin

Source

Journals of Anaïs Nin

Medium

Personal journal

Language

English

Time

1941 1940s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Nin, Anaïs. "December, 1941." The Diary of Anaïs Nin, vol. 3, 1939-1944, edited by Gunther Stuhlmann. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc., 1969.

We cannot tear out a single page of life, but we can throw the whole book in the fire.

George Sand

Mauprut

More information about this quote

Topic

Suicide

Author

George Sand

Source

Mauprut

Medium

Novel

Statement Type

Metaphor, analogy and simile

Language

French

Time

1837 1830s 19th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Sand, George. "Mauprat." Revue des deu Monds, Apr.-June 1837. Serial.

The noblest conquest man has ever made.

Georges Louis Leclerc de Buffon

On horses.

More information about this quote

Topic

Horses Man and animals

Author

Georges Louis Leclerc de Buffon

Source

L'Histoire Naturelle

Language

French

Time

1753 1750s 18th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Buffon, Georges Louis Leclerc. "Le Cheval [The Horse]." Histoire Naturelle generale et particuliere, avec la description du Cabinet du Roi [Natural History, General and Particular, with a Description of the King's Cabinet]. Vol. 4, c. 1753.

We are never so happy nor so unhappy as we imagine.

François de La Rochefoucauld

Reflections

Buy Reflections at Amazon Buy Reflections at Amazon
Read Reflections at Project Gutenberg

More information about this quote

Topic

Emotions

Author

François de La Rochefoucauld

Source

Reflections

Medium

Epigram

Language

French

Time

1678 1670s 17th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

La Rochefoucauld, Francois. Reflexions ou sentences et maximes morales [Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims]. c. 1665.

Current Citation

La Rochefoucauld, Francois. Collected Maxims and Other Reflections, translated by E. H. and A. M. Blackmore and Francine Giguere. Oxford University Press, 2008.

Grown-ups never understand anything for themselves, and it is tiresome for children to be always and forever explaining things to them.

Antoine de Saint-Exupery

The Little Prince

Buy The Little Prince at Amazon Buy The Little Prince at Amazon

More information about this quote

Topic

Adults and children

Author

Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Source

The Little Prince

Statement Type

Irony

Language

French

Time

1943 1940s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

De Saint-Exupery, Antoine. Le Petit Prince [The Little Prince]. Reynal & Hitchcock, 1943, ch. 1.

Man is so made that he can only find relaxation from one kind of labor by taking up another.

Anatole France

The Crime of Sylvestre Bonnard

More information about this quote

Topic

Leisure Staying busy Human nature

Author

Anatole France

Source

The Crime of Sylvestre Bonnard

Medium

Novel

Language

French

Time

1881 1880s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

France, Anatole. Le Crime de Sylvestre Bonnard [The Crime of Sylvestre Bonnard]. Paris: Calmann-Lévy, 1881, pt. 2, ch. 4.

You ask if they were happy. This is not a characteristic of a European. To be contented-that's for the cows.

Coco Chanel

More information about this quote

Topic

Happiness Europeans

Speaker

Coco Chanel

Language

English

Time

1990 1990s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Coco Chanel. Quoted in Coco Chanel: A Biography, written by Axel Madsen. Bloomsbury Publishing, 1990, ch. 35.

The French want no-one to be their superior. The English want inferiors. The Frenchman constantly raises his eyes above him with anxiety. The Englishman lowers his beneath him with satisfaction. On either side it is pride, but understood in a different way.

Alexis de Tocqueville

More information about this quote

Topic

England and France England France

Author

Alexis de Tocqueville

Medium

Personal journal

Language

French

Time

1835 1830s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Tocqueville, Alexis De. Voyage en Angleterre et en Irlande de 1835 [Journeys to England and Ireland]. c. 1835.

Current Citation

Tocqueville, Alexis De. Journeys to England and Ireland, translated by George Lawrence and K. P. Mayer. Routledge, 2017.

I bend and I break not.

Jean de la Fontaine

More information about this quote

Topic

Inner strength Fortitude

Author

Jean de la Fontaine

Source

Fables (de la Fontaine)

Medium

Fable and fairytale

Language

French

Time

1668 1660s 17th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

La Fontaine, Jean. "Le chene et le roseau [The Oak and the Reed]." Fables. Paris, 1668, bk. 1, no. 22.

Current Citation

La Fontaine, Jean. "The Oak and the Reed." The Complete Fables of Jean de La Fontaine, translated by Norman R. Shapiro. University of Illinois Press, 2007, bk. 1, no. 22.

If youth knew; if age could.

Henri Estienne

More information about this quote

Topic

Youth vs. old age Youth Old age

Author

Henri Estienne

Source

Les Premices

Statement Type

Proverbs, aphorisms and adages

Language

French

Time

1594 1590s 16th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Estienne, Henri. Les Premices. 1594, bk. 4, epigram 4.