"France is the land of the inner psyche. The inner expertise. They are wonderful confessives. But when I was young what impressed me most was their high seriousness about literature. Often humorless. But high."

"First of all, let's dispense with this absurd stereotype that the French are rude. The French are not rude. They just happen to hate you. But that is no reason to have bypass this beautiful country, whose master chefs have a well-deserved worldwide reputation for trying to trick people into eating snails. Nobody is sure how this got started. Probably a couple of French master chefs were standing around one day, and they found a snail, and one of them said: "I bet that if we called this something like 'escargot,' tourists would eat it." Then they had a hearty laugh, because "escargot" is the French word for "fat crawling bag of phlegm.""

"Which is the funniest language? It's French, isn't it?"

"The creation of Modern France through expansion goes back to the establishment of a small kingdom in the area around Paris in the late tenth century and was not completed until the incorporation of Nice and Savoy in 1860. The existing "hexagon" was the result of a long series of wars and conquests involving the triumph of French language and culture over what once were autonomous and culturally distinctive communities. The assimilation of Gascons, Savoyards, Occitans, Basques, and others helped to sustain the myth that French overseas expansionism in the nineteenth century, especially to North and West Africa, was a continuation of the same assimilationist project."

"According to current birthrate projections, France will be a majority Muslim country anyway in about 50 years... I get a lot of e-mails from Americans who think that Europeans are spineless. And I think they're right."

"We need to give priority to the French in their own country."

"Our country, our nation is built by two institutions, the state and the language. A language whose epicenter today is no longer on these banks of the Seine, but probably much more towards the Congo River basin."

"France, as an important member of the EEC, plays a major role in European affairs and it is a strong proponent of European unity. It is currently the President of the EEC Council, at a time when the Community is addressing itself to many economic and political questions, in intra-community affairs, as well as in matters between the Community and other countries and groups of countries. The Community itself is about to be enlarged with the admission of two new members, namely, Spain and Portugal. I would like to extend to you my best wishes and to express my confidence that under the Presidency of France, the Community will achieve progress in its endeavours."

"Gay, sprightly, land of mirth and social ease Pleased with thyself, whom all the world can please."

"And threat'ning France, plac'd like a painted Jove, Kept idle thunder in his lifted hand."

"O France, the time of reproach has passed and we have closed like a book; o France, the day of reckoning is at hand. So prepare to receive from us our answer!"

"France cannot be France without greatness."

"La France a perdu une bataille, mais la France n'a pas perdu la guerre."

"Toute ma vie, je me suis fait une certaine idée de la France."

"France has no friends, only interests."

"I have never liked France or the French, and I have never stopped saying so."

"France above all!"

"France had been the cradle of anarchism, fathered for a long time by some of her most brilliant sons, of whom Proudhon was the greatest."

"A Frenchman comes here to make money, and that is about all that need be said of him. He is only a Frenchman. He neither learns our language nor loves our country. His hand is on our pocket and his eye on Paris. He gets what he wants and, like a sensible Frenchman, returns to France to spend it."

"France, famed in all great arts, in none supreme."

"Tous les anciens peuples de la Gaule réunis en un seul peuple s’embrassent au nom des mêmes aïeux; et, comme ils ont une origine commune, ils vivront sous les mêmes lois et partageront les mêmes destinées."

"Providence has given the French nation precisely two instruments, two arms, so to speak, with which it stirs up the world – the French language and the spirit of proselytism that forms the essence of the nation's character."

"Une nation de singes à larynx de perroquets."

"I hate the French because they are all slaves and wear wooden shoes."

"The French are wiser than they seem, and the Spaniards seem wiser than they are."