France

Explore 470 quotes by people from France

Love's pleasure lasts but a moment;
Love's sorrow lasts all through life.

Jean-Pierre Claris de Florian

More information about this quote

Topic

Complexities of love Sex Dangers of love Love

Author

Jean-Pierre Claris de Florian

Source

Celestine

Medium

Poem

Language

French

Time

1784 1780s 18th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

De Florian, Jean-Pierre Claris. Celestine. 1784.

When prejudice commands, reason is silent.

Claude Adrien Helvétius

More information about this quote

Topic

Prejudice and bias Reason

Author

Claude Adrien Helvétius

Source

A Treatise on Man

Genre

Philosophical literature

Language

French

Time

1771 1770s 18th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Helvetius, Claude Andre. De L'homme, des ses Facultes Intellectuelles et de Son Education [A Treatise on Man: His Intellectual Faculties and His Education]. Vol. 2, London: James Cundee/Vernor, Hood and Sharpe, 1810, ch. 19.

Current Citation

Helvetius, Claude Andre. A Treatise on Man: His Intellectual Faculties and His Education, translated by W. Hooper. Vol. 2, University of Michigan Press, 2009, ch. 19.

True kindness presupposes the faculty of imagining as one's own the sufferings and joys of others.

Andre Gide

More information about this quote

Topic

Kindness Empathy

Author

Andre Gide

Language

French

Time

1959 1950s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Gide, Andre. "Portraits and Aphorisms: An Unprejudiced Mind." Pretexts: Reflections on Literature and Morality, edited by Justin O'Brien. Secker & Warburg/Meridian Books, 1959.

Of all days, the one most surely wasted is the one on which one has not laughed.

Nicolas Chamfort

More information about this quote

Topic

Laughter

Author

Nicolas Chamfort

Source

Maximes et Pensées

Genre

Philosophical literature

Language

French

Time

1796 1790s 18th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Chamfort, Nicolas. Maximes et Pensees. c. 1796, no. 48.

The artist must have the patience of water that eats away the rock drop by drop.

Auguste Rodin

More information about this quote

Topic

Artistic process Patience Art

Speaker

Auguste Rodin

Source

Rodin: The Man and His Art, with Leaves from His Notebook

Genre

Biography

Language

French

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Rodin, Auguste and S. K. Star. Rodin: The Man and His Art, with Leaves from His Notebook. Century, 1917, p. 7.

Autumn is quite beautiful here but all the same has a funereal air, like all beautiful autumns-something like a funereal relaxation of things.

Marcel Duchamp

More information about this quote

Topic

Autumn Death Seasons Nature

Speaker

Marcel Duchamp

Source

The Duchamp Dictionary

Genre

Biography

Language

English

Time

20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Grist, Thomas. The Duchamp Dictionary. Thames & Hudson, 2014, p. 70.

A great nose indicates a great man-
Genial, courteous, intellectual,
Virile, courageous.

Edmond Rostand

Read Cyrano de Bergerac at Project Gutenberg

More information about this quote

Topic

Noses Body parts

Speaker

Cyrano de Bergerac

Author

Edmond Rostand

Source

Cyrano de Bergerac

Medium

Play

Language

French

Time

1897 1890s 19th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Rostand, Edmond. Cyrano de Bergerac. 27 Dec. 1897, Theatre de la Porte Saint-Martin, Paris, France, act 1, sc. 4.

Current Citation

Rostand, Edmond. Cyrano de Bergerac, translated by Lowell Bair. Signet, 2012, act 1, sc. 4.

If ignorance of nature gave birth to the Gods, knowledge of nature is destined to destroy them.

Baron d'Holbach

More information about this quote

Topic

Existence of God Science and religion

Author

Baron d'Holbach

Source

The System of Nature

Genre

Philosophical literature

Language

French

Time

1770 1770s 18th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

D'Holbach, Paul-Henri Thiry, Baron [published as Jean-Baptiste de Mirabaud]. Systeme de la Nature ou Des Loix due Mond Physique et du Monde Moral [The System of Nature or, the Laws of the Moral and Physical World]. 1770, pt. 2, ch. 1.

Human life is a sad show, undoubtedly: ugly, heavy and complex. Art has no other end, for people of feeling, than to conjure away the burden and bitterness.

Gustave Flaubert

More information about this quote

Topic

Purpose of art Art Life The human condition

Author

Gustave Flaubert

Source

Letters of Gustave Flaubert

Medium

Letter

Language

French

Time

1864 1860s 19th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Flaubert, Gustave. Letter to Amelie Bosquet. July 1864.

Between good sense and good taste there is the same difference as between cause and effect.

Jean de La Bruyere

More information about this quote

Topic

Good taste Taste

Author

Jean de La Bruyere

Source

The Characters, or The Manners of the Age

Language

French

Time

1688 1680s 17th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

De La Bruyere, Jean. "Des jugements [Of Judgement]." Les Caracteres ou Les Moeurs de Ce Siecle [The Characters or The Manners of the Age]. Paris: Chez Estienne Michallet, 1688.

The original writer is not he who refrains from imitating others, but he who can be imitated by none.

François-Rene de Chateaubriand

More information about this quote

Topic

Originality Writers

Author

François-Rene de Chateaubriand

Source

The Genius of Christianity

Genre

Religious literature

Language

French

Time

1802 1800s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

De Chateaubriand, Francois Rene. Genie du christianisme [The Genius of Christianity]. Paris: Chez Migneret, 1802, pt. 2, bk. 1, ch. 3.

Tyranny is always better organized than freedom.

Charles Peguy

More information about this quote

Topic

Tyranny Threats to freedom

Author

Charles Peguy

Source

Basic Verities

Medium

Epigram

Language

French

Time

1943 1940s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Peguy, Charles. Basic Verities: Prose and Poetry, translated by Ann and Julian Green. Pantheon Books, 1943.

Everything we think of as great has come to us from neurotics. It is they and they alone who found religions and create great works of art. The world will never realise how much it owes to them and what they have suffered in order to bestow their gifts on it.

Marcel Proust

In Search of Lost Time

Buy The Guermantes Way at Amazon Buy The Guermantes Way at Amazon

More information about this quote

Topic

Creativity

Speaker

Bergotte

Author

Marcel Proust

Source

In Search of Lost Time

Medium

Novel

Genre

Modernist literature

Language

French

Time

1921 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Proust, Marcel. Le Côté de Guermantes [The Guermantes Way]. Paris: Gallimard, 1920-1921.

Current Citation

Proust, Marcel. The Guermantes Way, edited and translated by Mark Treharne. Penguin Classics, 2005.

What interests me most is neither still life nor landscape, but the human figure. It is through it that I best succeed in expressing the almost religious feeling I have towards life.

Henri Matisse

More information about this quote

Topic

Human body

Author

Henri Matisse

Source

Notes d'un Peintre

Language

French

Time

1908 1900s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Matisse, Henri. "Notes d'un peintre [Notes of a Painter]." Le Grande Revue, 25 Dec. 1908.

Current Citation

Matisse, Henri. "Notes of a Painter." Matisse on Art, translated and edited by Jack Flam. University of California Press, 1995, ch. 2.

A kiss can be a comma, a question mark or an exclamation point. That's basic spelling that every woman ought to know.

Mistinguett

More information about this quote

Topic

Kisses

Speaker

Mistinguett

Source

Theatre Arts

Medium

Magazine

Language

French

Time

1955 1950s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Mistinguett. Quoted in "Limelights and Footlights." Written by Hedy Clark. Theatre Arts, 1955.

To love for the sake of being loved is human, but to love for the sake of loving is angelic.

Alphonse de Lamartine

Graziella

More information about this quote

Topic

Selflessness Love Human nature

Author

Alphonse de Lamartine

Source

Graziella

Medium

Novel

Language

French

Time

1849 1840s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

De Lamartine, Alphonse. "Graziella." Les Confidences, 1849.

Current Citation

De Lamartine, Alphonse. Graziella, translated by Raymond N. MacKenzie. University of Minnesota Press, 2018, pt. 4, ch. 5.

It is easier to make war than to make peace.

Georges Clemenceau

More information about this quote

Topic

War and peace War Peace

Speaker

Georges Clemenceau

Source

Speech on Peace

Medium

Speech

Genre

Political speech

Language

French

Time

1919 1910s 20th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Clemenceau, Georges. "Discours de Paix [Speech on Peace]." 20 July 1919, Verdun, France.

I have a very definite theory-let's call it theory, so that I can be wrong-that a work of art exists only when the spectator has looked at it.

Marcel Duchamp

More information about this quote

Topic

Artist and audience Nature of art Art

Speaker

Marcel Duchamp

Source

Speaking of Art: Four Decades of Art in Conversation

Medium

Interview

Language

Unclear

Time

20th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Duchamp, Marcel. Audio Arts. 1974. Originally a recorded interview by George Heard Hamilton, Richard Hamilton, and Charles Mitchell, London, 1959.

The beautiful implies a combination of many different qualities. Strength alone, without elegance, etc., is not beauty. In a single word, the broadest definition would be harmony.

Eugène Delacroix

More information about this quote

Topic

Nature of beauty Beauty

Author

Eugène Delacroix

Source

Journals of Eugene Delacroix

Medium

Personal journal

Language

French

Time

1854 1850s 19th century

Authentication Score 1

Original Citation

Delacroix, Eugène. Undated journal entry. c. 1854.

Current Citation

Delacroix, Eugène. The Journal of Eugène Delacroix: A Selection, translated by Lucy Norton, edited by Hubert Wellington. Phaidon, 1995.

Nothing is more dangerous than an idea, when you have only one idea.

Alain (Emile Chartier)

More information about this quote

Topic

Fanaticism Narrow-mindedness Intolerance Power of ideas

Author

Alain (Emile Chartier)

Source

Propos sur la religion

Language

French

Time

1938 1930s 20th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Chartier, Émile [published as Alain]. Propos sur le Religion no. 74. Editions Rieder, 1938.