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Quotes by French Authors

"Memory always obeys the commands of the heart."
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Antoine Rivarol
"Memory always obeys the commands of the heart."
"The antiquity and general acceptance of an opinion is not assurance of its truth."
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Pierre Bayle
"The antiquity and general acceptance of an opinion is not assurance of its truth."
"Complete possession is proved only by giving. All you are unable to give possesses you."
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Andre Gide
"Complete possession is proved only by giving. All you are unable to give possesses you."
"Life was given to me as a favor, so I may abandon it when it is one no longer."
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Charles de Secondat
"Life was given to me as a favor, so I may abandon it when it is one no longer."
"I sometimes feel like I could do another job. Anything. Maybe because as an actress you're playing different characters, everything feels possible."
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Juliette Binoche
"I sometimes feel like I could do another job. Anything. Maybe because as an actress you're playing different characters, everything feels possible."
Job,
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43
"Love is made by two people, in different kinds of solitude. It can be in a crowd, but in an oblivious crowd."
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Louis Aragon
"Love is made by two people, in different kinds of solitude. It can be in a crowd, but in an oblivious crowd."
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43
"All true language is incomprehensible, like the chatter of a beggar's teeth."
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Antonin Artaud
"All true language is incomprehensible, like the chatter of a beggar's teeth."
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43
"Love of glory can only create a great hero; contempt of glory creates a great man."
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Charles Maurice de Talleyrand
"Love of glory can only create a great hero; contempt of glory creates a great man."
"Help thyself and Heaven will help thee."
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Jean de La Fontaine
"Help thyself and Heaven will help thee."
"I hate biographies which say, I was called to such and such an office, and he offered me so and so, and I got so and so money. I find that very tedious. The best biographies are written by other people."
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Leslie Caron
"I hate biographies which say, I was called to such and such an office, and he offered me so and so, and I got so and so money. I find that very tedious. The best biographies are written by other people."
"Ideas rose in clouds; I felt them collide until pairs interlocked, so to speak, making a stable combination."
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Henri Poincare
"Ideas rose in clouds; I felt them collide until pairs interlocked, so to speak, making a stable combination."
"A religious life is a struggle and not a hymn."
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Madame de Stael
"A religious life is a struggle and not a hymn."
"I may, however, begin riding again when I am 60."
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Bernard Hinault
"I may, however, begin riding again when I am 60."
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43
"Beauty always promises, but never gives anything."
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Simone Weil
"Beauty always promises, but never gives anything."
"Therefore one should speak at the same time of national citizenship and wider European citizenship."
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Jacques Delors
"Therefore one should speak at the same time of national citizenship and wider European citizenship."
"Genius is childhood recalled at will."
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Charles Baudelaire
"Genius is childhood recalled at will."
"Oh, how sweet it is to pity the fate of an enemy who can no longer threaten us!"
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Pierre Corneille
"Oh, how sweet it is to pity the fate of an enemy who can no longer threaten us!"
"Begin to free yourself at once by doing all that is possible with the means you have, and as you proceed in this spirit the way will open for you to do more."
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Georges Clemenceau
"Begin to free yourself at once by doing all that is possible with the means you have, and as you proceed in this spirit the way will open for you to do more."
"Ignorance is the primary source of all misery and vice."
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Victor Cousin
"Ignorance is the primary source of all misery and vice."
"I had become interested in economics, an interest that was transformed into a lifetime dedication when I met with the mathematical theory of general economic equilibrium."
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Gerard Debreu
"I had become interested in economics, an interest that was transformed into a lifetime dedication when I met with the mathematical theory of general economic equilibrium."
"When Ulysses hears his own story sung by an epic poet and then he reveals his identity and the poet wants to continue singing, Ulysses isn't interested any longer. That's very astonishing."
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Raymond Queneau
"When Ulysses hears his own story sung by an epic poet and then he reveals his identity and the poet wants to continue singing, Ulysses isn't interested any longer. That's very astonishing."
"One falls to the ground in trying to sit on two stools."
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Francois Rabelais
"One falls to the ground in trying to sit on two stools."
"As great as kings may be, they are what we are: they can err like other men."
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Pierre Corneille
"As great as kings may be, they are what we are: they can err like other men."
"The important thing in life is not to triumph but to compete."
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Pierre de Coubertin
"The important thing in life is not to triumph but to compete."
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43
"Preoccupation with money is the great test of small natures, but only a small test of great ones."
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Nicolas de Chamfort
"Preoccupation with money is the great test of small natures, but only a small test of great ones."
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43
"Modernity is the transitory, the fugitive, the contingent, which make up one half of art, the other being the eternal and the immutable. This transitory fugitive element, which is constantly changing, must not be despised or neglected."
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Charles Baudelaire
"Modernity is the transitory, the fugitive, the contingent, which make up one half of art, the other being the eternal and the immutable. This transitory fugitive element, which is constantly changing, must not be despised or neglected."
"Skepticism is the first step on the road to philosophy."
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Denis Diderot
"Skepticism is the first step on the road to philosophy."
"The French want no-one to be their superior. The English want inferiors. The Frenchman constantly raises his eyes above him with anxiety. The Englishman lowers his beneath him with satisfaction."
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Alexis de Tocqueville
"The French want no-one to be their superior. The English want inferiors. The Frenchman constantly raises his eyes above him with anxiety. The Englishman lowers his beneath him with satisfaction."
"People of quality know everything without ever having learned anything."
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Moliere
"People of quality know everything without ever having learned anything."
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43
"A word is not the same with one writer as with another. One tears it from his guts. The other pulls it out of his overcoat pocket."
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Charles Peguy
"A word is not the same with one writer as with another. One tears it from his guts. The other pulls it out of his overcoat pocket."
"It wasn't all frustration. I've had a lot of good times with Ferrari as well."
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Jean Alesi
"It wasn't all frustration. I've had a lot of good times with Ferrari as well."
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43
"Before I thought there was a common denominator between my films - as if all my characters were sisters - but I'm not so sure now."
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Juliette Binoche
"Before I thought there was a common denominator between my films - as if all my characters were sisters - but I'm not so sure now."
"The mixture of the grotesque and the tragic is agreeable to the spirit, as are discords to the jaded ear."
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Charles Baudelaire
"The mixture of the grotesque and the tragic is agreeable to the spirit, as are discords to the jaded ear."
"If you start to take Vienna - take Vienna."
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Napoleon Bonaparte
"If you start to take Vienna - take Vienna."
"When a thought is too weak to be expressed simply, it is a proof that it should be rejected."
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Luc de Clapier
"When a thought is too weak to be expressed simply, it is a proof that it should be rejected."
"A kiss is a rosy dot over the 'i' of loving."
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Cyrano de Bergerac
"A kiss is a rosy dot over the 'i' of loving."
"Stupidity talks, vanity acts."
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Victor Hugo
"Stupidity talks, vanity acts."
"The ideal, without doubt, varies, but its enemies, alas, are always the same."
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Jean Rostand
"The ideal, without doubt, varies, but its enemies, alas, are always the same."
"All the scholastic scaffolding falls as a ruined edifice before a single word: faith."
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Napoleon Bonaparte
"All the scholastic scaffolding falls as a ruined edifice before a single word: faith."
"The quality of life is more important than life itself."
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Alexis Carrel
"The quality of life is more important than life itself."
"A man can keep another's secret better than his own. A woman her own better than others."
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Jean de la Bruyere
"A man can keep another's secret better than his own. A woman her own better than others."
"Life being what it is, one dreams of revenge."
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Paul Gauguin
"Life being what it is, one dreams of revenge."
"We never taste happiness in perfection, our most fortunate successes are mixed with sadness."
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Pierre Corneille
"We never taste happiness in perfection, our most fortunate successes are mixed with sadness."
"One thing above all gives charm to men's thoughts, and this is unrest. A mind that is not uneasy irritates and bores me."
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Anatole France
"One thing above all gives charm to men's thoughts, and this is unrest. A mind that is not uneasy irritates and bores me."
"The art of motherhood involves much silent, unobtrusive self-denial, an hourly devotion which finds no detail too minute."
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"The art of motherhood involves much silent, unobtrusive self-denial, an hourly devotion which finds no detail too minute."
"Men are beasts and even beasts don't behave as they do."
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Brigitte Bardot
"Men are beasts and even beasts don't behave as they do."
Men,
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43
"There is no kind of harassment that a man may not inflict on a woman with impunity in civilized societies."
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Denis Diderot
"There is no kind of harassment that a man may not inflict on a woman with impunity in civilized societies."
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43
"French design hardly exists, except as artificial modernism."
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Christian Lacroix
"French design hardly exists, except as artificial modernism."
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43
"God invented concubinage, satan marriage."
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Francis Picabia
"God invented concubinage, satan marriage."
"Victory belongs to the most persevering."
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Napoleon Bonaparte
"Victory belongs to the most persevering."
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