French Author Quotes

I am dying of thirst by the side of the fountain.

Charles, Duke of Orléans

I have so fiercely dreamed of you And walked so far and spoken of you so, Loved a shade of you so hard That now I've no more left of you.

I always have a pad of paper and a pencil within reach, to catch on the wing this turn of phrase which strikes me as felicitous, that idea which I hope to be able to examine more closely in the light of day.

Roger Martin du Gard

The politician is an acrobat; he keeps his balance by doing the opposite of what he says.

Maurice Barrès

One reproaches a lover, but can one reproach a husband, when his only fault is that he no longer loves?

Madame de La Fayette

Ah, the whites! Their malignity and their omniscience—that was what made them terrifying!

How many have died without having given even one kiss to their chimera!

Théophile Gautier

There is no mystery about the authorship of Shakespeare's plays. They were not written by Shakespeare at all. They were all written by a total stranger, about whom all we know is that he was called Shakespeare.

Alphonse Allais

One might almost reckon mathematically that, having undergone the double composition of public opinion and of the author, their history reaches us at third hand and is thus separated by two stages from the original fact.

Alfred de Vigny

Some people measure the worth of good actions only by their natural qualities or their difficulty, given the preference to what is conspicuous or brilliant... The dignity and difficulty of a good action certainly affects what is technically called its accidental worth, but all its essential worth comes from love alone.

Jean-Pierre Camus

If they do only one jump, you know, there's a fifty percent chance of an injury. Two jumps it's eighty percent. The third time, it's dead certain they won't get off Scot free. You see? It's not a question of training, but the law of averages.

There is no power in nature which from nothing could have made the universe, and none which could reduce the universe to nothing:

All my life I have been favored by incredible luck. It would take too long to enumerate all of the occasions...

I am God, says Love, for Love is God and God is Love, and this Soul is God by the condition of Love. I am God by divine nature and this Soul is God by the condition of Love. Thus this precious beloved of mine is taught and guided by me, without herself, for she is transformed into me, and such a perfect one, says Love, takes my nourishment.

Marguerite Porete

No one can be too talkative without often saying something that makes him look foolish, for the wise man's saying goes: "Whoever talks too much does himself a bad turn."

Chrétien de Troyes

Women, rouse yourselves! The tocsin of reason resounds through the whole universe: recognize your rights. The powerful empire of nature is no longer surrounded by prejudices, fanaticism, superstition and lies.

Olympe de Gouges

One can make one's life a complete misery, worrying about burglaries and shipwrecks, but ask anyone, anyone you know... earth-shattering disasters and fabulous inheritances all seems to take place exclusively in the newspapers.

A man without wine
Would be dull as a fly
And shortly would die

Pierre Beaumarchais

No man has ever yet discovered the way to give friendly advice to any woman, not even to his own wife.

Honoré de Balzac

Everything interesting takes place in the dark; there is no doubt about it. We know nothing of the true story of the men. ―

Louis-Ferdinand Céline

The vaporish cocaine loosens the contours of their lives and sets their bodies adrift, and so they are untouchable.

The good effect of Fortune may be short-lived. To build on it is to build on sand.

Honorat de Bueil de Racan

Yet this is the watch by night.
Let us all accept new strength, and
real tenderness. And at dawn, armed
with glowing patience, we will enter
the cities of glory.

So many women here are ruled by their bodies. All buxom or bony and I don't want a confused woman or a careless woman or a depressed woman, Franck, I want a woman who is entirely under control. How can a woman look after my house and my children if she can't even look after her own body?

A tainted society has invented psychiatry to defend itself against the investigations of certain superior intellects whose faculties of divination would be troublesome.