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It is the certainty that they possess the truth that makes men cruel.

Anatole France

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Anatole France
Age: 80 †
Born: 1844
Born: April 16
Died: 1924
Died: October 12
Biographer
Critic
Librarian
Literary Critic
Novelist
Poet
Prosaist
Science Fiction Writer
Writer
Paris
France
Jacques François-Anatole Thibault
François-Anatole Thibault
Anatole Thibault
Math
Atheism
Wisdom
Makes
Truth
Men
Cruel
Possess
Certainty

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The mania of thinking renders one unfit for every activity.
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We thank God for having created this world, and praise Him for having made another, quite different one, where the wrongs of this one are corrected.
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Ugly women may be naturally quite as capricious as pretty ones but as they are never petted and spoiled, and as no allowances are made for them, they soon find themselves obliged either to suppress their whims or to hide them.
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Truth possesses within herself a penetrating force, unknown alike to error and falsehood. I say 'truth' and you understand my meaning. For the beautiful words truth and justice need not to be defined in order to be understood in their true sense.
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I thank fate for having made me born poor. Poverty taught me the true value of the gifts useful to life.
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If the path be beautiful, let us not ask where it leads.
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It is in the ability to deceive oneself that the greatest talent is shown.
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People who have no weaknesses are terrible there is no way of taking advantage of them.
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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!
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Never lend books, for no one ever returns them
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It is only the poor who are forbidden to beg.
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There is a certain impertinence in allowing oneself to be burned for an opinion.
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It is not customary to love what one has.
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The dog is a religious animal. In his savage state he worships the moon and the lights that float upon the waters. These are his gods to whom he appeals at night with long-drawn howls.
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Stupidity is far more dangerous than evil, for evil takes a break from time to time, stupidity does not.
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Do not try to satisfy your vanity by teaching a great many things. Awaken people's curiosity. It is enough to open minds do not overload them. Put there just a spark. If there is some good inflammable stuff, it will catch fire.
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Caress your phrase tenderly it will end by smiling at you.
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Irony and pity are two good counselors: one, in smiling, makes life pleasurable the other, who cries, makes it sacred.
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There are very honest people who do not think that they have had a bargain unless they have cheated a merchant.
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What men call civilization is the condition of present customs what they call barbarism, the condition of past ones.
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