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Quotes by French Authors
"In art, all who have done something other than their predecessors have merited the epithet of revolutionary; and it is they alone who are masters."
"Atheism is aristocratic; the idea of a great Being that watches over oppressed innocence and punishes triumphant crime is altogether popular."
"The auditory perception is not sufficient for our knowledge of the world; it does not have vastness."
"Success comprises in itself the seeds of its own decline and sport is not spared by this law."
"Art is contemplation. It is the pleasure of the mind which searches into nature and which there divines the spirit of which nature herself is animated."
"Between understanding and faith immediate connections must subsist."
"At the same time the Constitution sets in stone the Stability Pact and risks preventing member States from implementing a policy of growth. So we are not able to do things at the European or the national level."
"In Morocco, it's possible to see the Atlantic and the Mediterranean at the same time."
"Boulez seemed to me to be a guy who wrote laws. Like a company lawyer."
"The Holy Bible is an abyss. It is impossible to explain how profound it is, impossible to explain how simple it is."
"You have to show violence the way it is. If you don't show it realistically, then that's immoral and harmful. If you don't upset people, then that's obscenity."
"In literature as in ethics, there is danger, as well as glory, in being subtle. Aristocracy isolates us."
"A painting in a museum hears more ridiculous opinions than anything else in the world."
"Here, on the river's verge, I could be busy for months without changing my place, simply leaning a little more to right or left."
"Prosperity of wicked men runs like a torrent past, and soon is spent."
"No, but it's not because I'm getting older that I'm trying to accelerate. But something very curious is happening: The older I get, the more ideas I'm getting."
"People expect a lot more from someone they think looks interesting. It's a burden."
"They declaim against the passions without bothering to think that it is from their flame philosophy lights its torch."
"The trade of authorship is a violent, and indestructible obsession."
"More than in any other performing arts the lack of respect for acting seems to spring from the fact that every layman considers himself a valid critic."
"My life is very exciting now. Nostalgia for what? It's like climbing a staircase. I'm on the top of the staircase, I look behind and see the steps. That's where I was. We're here right now. Tomorrow, we'll be someplace else. So why nostalgia?"
"Culture is an instrument wielded by teachers to manufacture teachers, who, in their turn, will manufacture still more teachers."
"Art requires philosophy, just as philosophy requires art. Otherwise, what would become of beauty?"
"To be among people one loves, that's sufficient; to dream, to speak to them, to be silent among them, to think of indifferent things; but among them, everything is equal."
"If there is one realm in which it is essential to be sublime, it is in wickedness. You spit on a petty thief, but you can't deny a kind of respect for the great criminal."
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