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Quotes by French Authors
"The proof that the little prince existed is that he was charming, that he laughed, and that he was looking for a sheep. If anybody wants a sheep, that is a proof that he exists."
"February 13, 1936I ask of people more than they can give me. It is useless to maintain the contrary. But what a mistake and what despair. And myself perhaps...Seek contacts. All contacts. If I want to write about men, should I stop talking about the countryside? If the sky or light attract me, shall I forget the eyes or voices of those I love? Each time I am given the elements of a friendship, the fragments of an emotion, never the emotion or the friendship itself."
"We will freedom for freedom's sake, in and through particular circumstances. And in thus willing freedom, we discover that it depends entirely upon the freedom of others and that the freedom of others depends upon our own. Obviously, freedom as the definition of a man does not depend upon others, but as soon as there is a commitment, I am obliged to will the liberty of others at the same time as my own. I cannot make liberty my aim unless I make that of others equally my aim."
"Faith certainly tells us what the senses do not, but not the contrary of what they see; it is above, not against them."
"Sleep is a reward for some, a punishment for others. For all, it is a sanction."
"A good teacher must be able to put himself in the place of those who find learning hard."
"You can only perceive real beauty in a person as they get older."
"The present letter is a very long one, simply because I had no leisure to make it shorter."
"A writer cannot serve today those who make history, he must serve those who are subject to it."
"You will not dishonor the divine perfections by judgments unworthy of them, provided you never judge of Him by yourself, provided you do not ascribe to the Creator the imperfections and limitations of created beings."
"Who taught you all this, doctor?"The reply came promptly:"Suffering."
"If French is no longer the language of a power, it can be the language of a counter power."
"A man is sometimes as different from himself as he is from others."
"Each department of knowledge passes through three stages. The theoretic stage; the theological stage and the metaphysical or abstract stage."
"There can be no question of holding forth on ethics. I have seen people behave badly with great morality and I note every day that integrity has no need of rules."
"How is it that we remember the least triviality that happens to us and yet not remember how often we have recounted it to the same person?"
"Man is an idea, and a precious small idea once he turns his back on love."
"We rarely confide in those who are better than we are."
"After all manner of professors have done their best for us, the place we are to get knowledge is in books. The true university of these days is a collection of books."
"A kiss, when all is said, what is it? A rosy dot placed on the 'I' in loving; Tis a secret told to the mouth instead of to the ear."
"The heart is forever making the head its fool."
"Who, cher monsieur, will sleep on the floor for us? Whether I am capable of it myself? Look, I'd like to be and I shall be. Yes, we shall all be capable of it one day, and that will be salvation."
"The finest souls are those that have the most variety and suppleness."
"We must believe in luck. For how else can we explain the success of those we don't like?"
"Men are more easily governed through their vices than through their virtues."
"Then, as tonight, he had felt lonely, but soon had learnt the bounty of such loneliness. The music had breathed to him its message, to him alone amongst these ordinary folk, whispered its gentle secret. And now the star. Across the shoulders of these people a voice was speaking to him in a tongue that he alone could understand"."
"My heart is lost, the beasts have eaten it."
"Can we account for instinct?' said Monte Cristo. 'Are there not some places where we seem to breathe sadness? - why, we cannot tell. It is a chain of recollections - an idea which carries you back to other times, to other places - which, very likely, have no connection with the present time and place."
"On the whole men are more good than bad; that, however, isn't the real point. But they are more or less ignorant, and it is this that we call vice or virtue; the most incorrigible vice being that of an ignorance which fancies it knows everything and therefore claims for itself the right to kill. The soul of the murderer is blind; and there can be no true goodness nor true love without the utmost clear-sightedness."
"We can only know one thing about God - that he is what we are not. Our wretchedness alone is an image of this. The more we contemplate it, the more we contemplate him."
"We are more often treacherous through weakness than through calculation."
"Two fundamental literary qualities: supernaturalism and irony."
"The slave begins by demanding justice and ends by wanting to wear a crown. He must dominate in his turn."
"We only confess our little faults to persuade people that we have no big ones."
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