Anatole France

More from Anatole France

• All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy; for what we leave behind us is a part of ourselves; we must die to one life before we can enter another.

  The Crime of Sylvestre Bonnard (1881), Pt. II, ch. 4

  • Change

• To accomplish great things we must not only act, but also dream; not only plan, but also believe.

  Discours de réception, Séance De L’académie Française (introductory speech at a session of the French Academy), 24th December 1896, on Ferdinand de Lesseps’ work on the Suez Canal.

  • Success

• The whole art of teaching is only the art of awakening the natural curiosity of young minds for the purpose of satisfying it afterwards.

  The Crime of Sylvestre Bonnard (1881), Pt. II, ch. 4

  • Education

All 23 quotes from Anatole France

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• No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent.

  John Donne1572–1631No Man Is an Island (1624), Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions (1624), Meditation 17In context

• I came, I saw, I conquered.

  Julius Caesar100–44 BCInscription on the triumphal wagon reported in The Twelve Caesars by Suetonius, as translated by Robert Graves (1957).

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• The unexamined life is not worth living.

  Socrates470–399 BCThe Apology of Socrates (399 BC)

  • Philosophy