Anatole France

In art as in love, instinct is enough.

What can be more foolish than to think that all this rare fabric of heaven and earth could come by chance, when all the skill of art is not able to make an oyster!

Suffering! We owe to it all that is good in us, all that gives value to life; we owe to it pity, we owe to it courage, we owe to it all the virtues.

The truth is that life is delicious, horrible, charming, frightful, sweet, bitter, and that is everything.

Ignorance and error are necessary to life, like bread and water.

The average man does not know what to do with this life, yet wants another one which will last forever.

We do not know what to do with this short life, yet we want another which will be eternal.

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.

Existence would be intolerable if we were never to dream.

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

I prefer the folly of enthusiasm to the indifference of wisdom.

Silence is the wit of fools.