Quotes by french authors

We promise according to our hopes and perform according to our fears. Francois de La Rochefoucauld

Fears Our Promise Hopes Perform According

If it were not for the company of fools, a witty man would often be greatly at a loss. Francois de La Rochefoucauld

Man Fools Would Witty Were Loss Greatly Often Company

Why is it that our memory is good enough to retain the least triviality that happens to us, and yet not good enough to recollect how often we have told it to the same person? Francois de La Rochefoucauld

Good Memory Not Good Enough Enough Our Recollect Triviality Retain How Least Person Same Often Happens Us Why

If we are to judge of love by its consequences, it more nearly resembles hatred than friendship. Francois de La Rochefoucauld

Love Friendship Judge Hatred Consequences More Than Resembles Nearly

Love often leads on to ambition, but seldom does one return from ambition to love. Francois de La Rochefoucauld

Love Ambition Seldom Leads Return Does Often To Love

The repose of sleep refreshes only the body. It rarely sets the soul at rest. The repose of the night does not belong to us. It is not the possession of our being. Sleep opens within us an inn for phantoms. In the morning we must sweep out the shadows. Gaston Bachelard

Morning Soul Rest Sets Our Possession Out Must Rarely Shadows Only Opens Within Does Repose Being Us Sweep Body Phantoms Inn Belong Night Sleep

War is too serious a matter to entrust to military men. Georges Clemenceau

War Matter Men Military Too Entrust Serious

Without poets, without artists, men would soon weary of nature's monotony. Guillaume Apollinaire

Nature Weary Men Monotony Would Poets Soon Without Artists

Here is true immorality: ignorance and stupidity; the devil is nothing but this. His name is Legion. Gustave Flaubert

Ignorance Stupidity Devil Nothing Immorality True Name His Legion Here

The heart, like the stomach, wants a varied diet. Gustave Flaubert

Heart Varied Like Stomach Diet Wants

The faster the word sticks to the thought, the more beautiful is the effect. Gustave Flaubert

Beautiful Word Thought Faster More Sticks Effect

Patriotism is a kind of religion; it is the egg from which wars are hatched. Guy de Maupassant

Religion Patriotism Kind Hatched Egg Which Wars

Science is built up of facts, as a house is with stones. But a collection of facts is no more a science than a heap of stones is a house. Henri Poincare

Science Collection More Facts House Built Heap Up Than Stones

Modesty is the conscience of the body. Honore de Balzac

Modesty Body Conscience

Wisdom is that apprehension of heavenly things to which the spirit rises through love. Honore de Balzac

Love Wisdom Apprehension Spirit Rises Through Heavenly Which Things

In diving to the bottom of pleasure we bring up more gravel than pearls. Honore de Balzac

Pleasure More Diving Bottom Up Than Gravel Bring Pearls

It is easier to be a lover than a husband for the simple reason that it is more difficult to be witty every day than to say pretty things from time to time. Honore de Balzac

Time Day Every Day Simple Husband Lover Difficult Every Say Easier Pretty Pretty Things More Simple Reason Witty Than From Time To Time Reason Things

It gives you a good feeling. Each year, you rediscover in a garden the magic of life. A flower arrives, and it is a miracle. The leaves fall in the autumn, and it looks fantastic. There is a tenderness about a garden, and you can't help but be sensitive to that. Hubert de Givenchy

Life Good You Garden Feeling Year Fall Autumn Flower Magic Miracle About Gives Tenderness Looks Rediscover Leaves Sensitive Fantastic Help Each Good Feeling Each Year

In love, one should simplify, choose persons worthy of their promises and leave them if they don't keep them. Isabelle Adjani

Love Promises Worthy Simplify Leave Them Persons Should Choose Keep

Still today, I cannot cross the threshold of a teaching institution without physical symptoms, in my chest and my stomach, of discomfort or anxiety. And yet I have never left school. Jacques Derrida

Today Anxiety School Threshold Symptoms Physical Cross Never Institution Without Discomfort Still Chest Left Stomach Cannot Teaching