France

Explore 470 quotes by people from France

There can be no progress (real, that is, moral) except in the individual and by the individual himself.

Charles Baudelaire

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Topic

Personal growth Nature of progress Progress

Author

Charles Baudelaire

Language

French

Time

1867 1860s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Baudelaire, Charles. Mon Coeur mis a nu [My Naked Heart]. Paris, 1887, no. 15.

Current Citation

Baudelaire, Charles. "My Heart Laid Bare." Late Fragments: Flares, My Heart Laid Bare, Prose Poems, Belgium Disrobed, translated by Richard Sieburth. Yale University Press, 2022, no. 15.

Marriage must ceaselessly combat a monster that devours everything: habit.

Honoré de Balzac

Physiologie du Mariage

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Topic

Relationship challenges Marriage

Author

Honoré de Balzac

Source

Physiologie du Mariage

Language

French

Time

1829 1820s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

De Balzac, Honoré. Physiologie du mariage [Physiology of Marriage]. Paris, 1829, pt. 1, meditation 5, no. 47.

The whole secret of the study of nature lies in learning how to use one's eyes.

George Sand

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Topic

Paying attention Observation

Author

George Sand

Language

French

Time

1869 1860s 19th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Sand, George. Letter to Madame Juliette Lamber. 7 Apr. 1868.

The head is ever the dupe of the heart.

François de La Rochefoucauld

Reflections

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Topic

Heart vs. mind

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.

The world began without the human race and it will end without it... Man has never-save only when he reproduces himself-done other than cheerfully dismantle millions upon millions of structures and reduce their elements to a state in which they can no longer be reintegrated.

Claude Levi-Strauss

Tristes Tropiques

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Topic

Human destructiveness

Author

Claude Levi-Strauss

Source

Tristes Tropiques

Genre

Autobiography and memoir

Language

French

Time

1955 1950s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Levi-Strauss, Claude. Tristes Tropiques [Sad Tropics]. Librairie Plon, 1955, pt. 9, ch. 36.

Current Citation

Levi-Strauss, Claude. Tristes Tropiques, translated by John and Doreen Weightman. Penguin Classics, 2012, pt. 9, ch. 36.

Force is as pitiless to the man who possesses it, or thinks he does, as it is to its victims; the second it crushes, the first it intoxicates. The truth is, nobody really possesses it.

Simone Weil

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Topic

Nature of power

Author

Simone Weil

Language

French

Time

1940 1940s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Weil, Simone. "L'iliade ou le poeme de la force [The Iliad, or The Poem of Force]." Les Cahiers du Sud, 1940.

Current Citation

Weil, Simone. "The Iliad, or The Poem of Force." Simone Weil: An Anthology, translated by Sian Miles. Grove Press, 2000.

If we had no faults of our own, we would not take so much pleasure in noticing those of others.

François de La Rochefoucauld

Reflections

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Topic

Character flaws

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.

One of the best things about love is just recognizing a man's step when he climbs the stairs.

Colette

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Topic

Lifelong love Love

Author

Colette

Genre

Autobiography and memoir

Language

French

Time

1941 1940s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Colette. Looking Backwards. Peter Owen, 1975.

The most decisive actions of our life-I mean those that our most likely to decide the whole course of our future-are more often than not, unconsidered.

Andre Gide

The Counterfeiters

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Topic

Inflection points

Speaker

Hildebrant

Author

Andre Gide

Source

The Counterfeiters

Medium

Novel

Statement Type

Paradox

Language

French

Time

1926 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Gide, Andre. Les Faux-monnayeurs [The Counterfeiters]. Nouvelle Revue Francaise, 1925, pt. 3, ch. 16.

Current Citation

Gide, Andre. The Counterfeiters, translated by Dorothy Bussy. Penguin Books, 1990, pt. 3, ch. 16.

The pleasure of love is in the loving. We are happier in the passion we feel than in that we arouse.

François de La Rochefoucauld

Reflections

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Topic

Loving others

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.

Although human life is priceless, we always act as if something had an even greater price than life…but what is that something?

Antoine de Saint-Exupery

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Topic

What really matters Value of life

Speaker

Riviere

Author

Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Source

Night Flight

Medium

Novel

Statement Type

Question

Language

French

Time

1931 1930s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

De Saint-Exupery, Antoine. Vol de Nuit [Night Flight]. Éditions Gallimard, 1931, ch. 14.

To doubt everything and to believe everything are two equally convenient solutions; each saves us from thinking.

Henri Poincaré

Science and Hypothesis

More information about this quote

Topic

Critical thinking Doubt and skepticism Credulity

Author

Henri Poincaré

Source

Science and Hypothesis

Genre

Scientific literature

Language

French

Time

1902 1900s 20th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Poincare, Henri. La science et l'hypothese [Science and Hypothesis]. Flammarion, 1902, introduction.

Current Citation

Poincare, Henri. Science and Hypothesis: The Complete Text, translated by Melanie Frappier, Andrea Smith and David J. Stump, edited by Melanie Frappier and David J. Stump. Bloomsbury Academic, 2022, preface.

My diving bell becomes less oppressive, and my mind takes flight like a butterfly. There is so much to do. You can wander off in space or in time, set out for Tierra del Fuego or for King Midas's court. You can visit the woman you love, slide down beside her and stroke her still-sleeping face.

Jean-Dominique Bauby

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

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Topic

Imagination Power of thought

Author

Jean-Dominique Bauby

Source

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

Medium

Novel

Language

French

Time

1997 1990s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Bauby, Jean-Dominique. Le Scaphandre et le Papillon [The Diving Bell and the Butterfly]. Editions Robert Laffont, 1997, prologue.

The extermination camps, in endeavoring to turn man into a beast, intimated that it is not life alone which makes him man.

Andre Malraux

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Topic

The Holocaust

Author

Andre Malraux

Language

French

Time

1967 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Malraux, Andre. Antimemoires [Anti-memoirs]. Gallimard, 1967, sect. 2.

There are moments when everything goes well; don't be frightened, it won't last.

Jules Renard

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Topic

Things get worse Pessimism

Author

Jules Renard

Medium

Personal journal

Language

French

Time

1908 1900s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Renard, Jules. Journal entry. 31 Oct. 1908.

Current Citation

Renard, Jules. The Journal of Jules Renard, edited and translated by Louise Bogan and Elizabeth Roget. Tin House Books, 2017.

There are more dead people than living. And their numbers are increasing. The living are getting rarer.

Eugene Ionesco

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Topic

Dead people

Speaker

Berenger

Author

Eugene Ionesco

Source

Rhinoceros

Medium

Play

Language

French

Time

1959 1950s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Ionesco, Eugene. Rhinoceros. 1959, Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus, Düsseldorf, Germany, act 1.

To have common glories in the past, a common will in the present; to have done great things together, to will to do the like again-these are the essential conditions for the making of a people.

Ernest Renan

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Topic

Political community

Author

Ernest Renan

Source

What is a Nation?

Medium

Lecture

Language

French

Time

1882 1880s 19th century

Authentication Score 1

Original Citation

Renan, Ernest. "Qu’est-ce qu’une nation? [What is a Nation?]" 11 Mar. 1882, University of Sorbonne, Paris, France, pt. 3.

Current Citation

Renan, Ernest. "What is a Nation?" What is a Nation and Other Political Writings, translated by M. F. N. Giglioli. Columbia University Press, 2018, ch. 10, pt. 3.

Not one of us knows what effect his life produces, and what he gives to others; that is hidden from us and must remain so, though we are often allowed to see some little fraction of it, so that we may not lose courage.

Albert Schweitzer

More information about this quote

Topic

Interconnectedness of all people

Author

Albert Schweitzer

Source

Memoirs of Childhood and Youth

Genre

Autobiography and memoir

Language

German

Time

1949 1940s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Schweitzer, Albert. Aus Meiner Kindheit und Jugendzeit [Memoirs of Childhood and Youth]. C. H. Beck, 1924.

Current Citation

Scweitzer, Albert. Memoirs of Childhood and Youth, translated by Kurt Bergel and Alice R. Bergel. Syracuse University Press, 1997.

To tell the truth, one is not born a genius: one becomes a genius.

Simone de Beauvoir

The Second Sex

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Topic

Womanhood Women

Author

Simone de Beauvoir

Source

The Second Sex

Genre

Historical literature Feminist literature

Language

French

Time

1949 1940s 20th century

Authentication Score 1

Original Citation

De Beauvoir, Simone. Le Deuxième Sexe [The Second Sex]. Vol. 1, Gallimard, 1949.

Current Citation

De Beauvoir, Simone. The Second Sex, translated by Constance Borde and Sheila Malovany-Chevallier. Vintage, 2011.

We must cultivate our garden.

Voltaire

Candide

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Topic

Gardens Simple living

Speaker

Candide

Author

Voltaire

Source

Candide

Medium

Novel

Genre

Satire

Language

French

Time

1759 1750s 18th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Voltaire. Candide, ou l'Optimisme [Candide: or, All for the Best]. Geneva: Gabriel Cramer, 1759, ch. 30.

Current Citation

Voltaire. Candide, edited by Nicholas Cronk. W. W. Norton & Company, 2016, ch. 30.