Novelists From France

"Liking does not mean love."

"I cannot acknowledge violence, even against violence."

"We ‘made’ the moral law, we are not ‘made’ for it."

"Astres qui regardez les mondes où nous sommes, Pure armée au repos dans la hauteur des cieux, Campement éternel, léger, silencieux, Que pensez-vous de voir s'anéantir les hommes?"

"On aime Plus âprement que l'on ne hait!"

"Prenez-vous, quittez-vous, cherchez-vous tour à tour, Il n’est rien de réel que le rêve et l’amour."

"Aimer qui vous aime, admirer qui vous admire, en un mot, être l'idole de son idole! ... C'est trop, c'est dépasser les joies humaines, c'est déruber le feu du ciel!"

"Les esprits dont la mission est de détruire les préjugés, sont précisément ceux qui ont la plus de préjugés, et qui les professent avec le plus d'aveuglement."

"Quand on veut dessécher un marais, on ne fait pas en voter les grenouilles!"

"It is not easy to be a widow: one must reassume all the modesty of girlhood, without being allowed to even feign its ignorance."

"A woman's life can be divided thus: the age when she dances but does not dare to waltz — it is the spring; the age when she dances and dares to waltz — it is summer; the age when she dances but prefers to waltz — it is autumn; finally, when she dances no longer — it is winter, that rigorous winter of life."

"It has been said that society is for the happy, the rich; we should rather say the happy have no need of it."

"Infidelity, like death, admits of no degrees."

"Our instinct inspires us, — warns us, our intelligence scents out what our reason docs not discover, for instinct is the nose of the mind."

"O, how true it is there can be no tête-à-tête where vanity reigns!"

"There is only one proper way to wear a beautiful dress: to forget you are wearing it."

"For ages happiness has been represented as a huge precious stone, impossible to find, which people seek for hopelessly. It is not so — happiness is a mosaic, composed of a thousand little stones, which, separately and of themselves, have little value, but which, united with art form a graceful design. Set the mosaic carefully, and you have a beautiful ornament; learn to understand intelligently the passing enjoyments which chance, which your character gives you, or which Heaven sends you, and you have an agreeable existence. Why always look to the horizon when there are such fine roses in the garden you live in?"

"I do not believe in virtue, but I do believe in innocence. They are very different. Innocence is ignorance."

"We are only vulnerable and ridiculous through our pretensions."

"Self-interest, that leprosy of the age, attacks us from infancy, and we are startled to observe little heads calculate before knowing how to reflect."

"Good taste is the modestly of the mind; that is why it cannot be either imitated or acquired."

"Hope, alas! is our waking dream."

"Love with men is not a sentiment, but an idea."

"Treasures are not for youth; at twenty years one does not know how to be rich, or to be loved."

"Ici, elle était vraiment fille; elle obéissait à son tempérament de femme ardente et cruelle; elle vivait, plus raffinée et plus sauvage, plus exécrable et plus exquise; elle réveillait plus énergiquement les sens en léthargie de l’homme, ensorcelait, domptait plus sûrement ses volontés, avec son charme de grande fleur vénérienne, poussée dans des couches sacrilèges, élevée dans des serres impies."

"Those who always speak well of women do not know them sufficiently; those who always speak ill of them do not know them at all."

"( Emmanuel Macron)The President of the Republic has decided to entrust, as of today, the function of Personal Representative of the Head of State for the Francophonie to Ms. Leïla Slimani. According to the mission letter she received from the President of the Republic, Ms. Slimani will represent France on the Permanent Council of the Francophonie"

"Abroad, French often has the reputation of being a difficult, highly literary language. A rarified language that belongs to intellectuals. However, it is important to show young people that it is also a language of modernity, a language of rap and slam poetry, for thinking about the world of tomorrow and inventing. And also that French is also a useful language through which you can find work."

"I speak French, English and an Arabic dialect. This is something that is very natural for me and that I don’t think about."

"It is a fascinating and very rewarding job on a human level. French is a global language, which lives and flourishes on all the continents, with accents, turns of phrase and metaphors which belong to each landscape. It is quite extraordinary to see the flexibility of this language and to understand its constant creolisation and transformation."

"You only have to travel around the world, especially in Africa for example or in the Maghreb, to see how much of an appetite there is for French."

"My first mission will be to de-age the very notion of Francophonie, to restore its luster, its youth, its dynamism."

"... one feels compelled to admit the justice of Paul Bourget's classification when he places Mrs. Craven in the pious school of novelists. ... From the material point of view her efforts were happily very successful, some of her stories having had an extensive sale. Yet it would be a daring speculation to assert either that she created her reading public or robbed the realistic writers of theirs. Most probably she wrote for a public which already existed—the pious Catholic world in France—and in so doing has laid herself open to the stigma of having "written books for girls." The best which can be said of Mrs. Craven's novels is, that they are conventional romances written by a clever woman."

"Le Récit d’une sœur, qui est pour la plus grande partie la correspondance authentique et intime d’une famille bien connue, fit grand bruit. Peu de livres de femme se sont vendus à un aussi grand nombre d’exemplaires. « Ce livre est un calice de douleurs ! » Elle a été très critiquée par Armand de Pontmartin et Barbey d’Aurevilly. Ce dernier aurait voulu que le Récit d’une sœur fût l’unique livre de Mme Craven. « La plume qui l’a écrit devrait être brisée, a-t-il dit, comme, dans certains pays, le verre avec lequel on a trinqué avec le roi. Le verre funèbre plein de délices et d’angoisses dans lequel Mme Craven a bu à la mémoire des siens ne devait plus servir à personne. Est-ce que le roi de Thulé, après avoir pleuré dans sa coupe, ne la jeta pas à la mer ? » The Tale of a Sister, which is for the most part the authentic and intimate correspondence of a well-known family, caused a great stir. Few women's books have sold such a large number of copies. "This book is a chalice of sorrows!" It was criticized in depth by and . The latter would have liked the Tale of a Sister to be Mrs. Craven's only book. "The pen that wrote it should be broken," he said, "like, in some countries, the glass with which one toasts with the king. The funeral glass full of delights and anguish from which Mrs. Craven drank in memory of her family should no longer be of use to anyone. Did not the , after weeping in his cup, throw it into the sea?""

"It used to be the custom in France to spend the whole of the summer in the country and the winter in town. By , or, at the latest, at the end of December, the chateaux were deserted, and the hotels of the filled with fashionable inhabitants. This is no longer the case. People remain in their country houses until nearly the end of winter, and though the Paris season encroaches a little on the spring, it is over by the beginning of June, and the time devoted to social enjoyment thus considerably abridged. Whether this change is for the best is a question not easily solved."

"The doctor rubbed his spectacles and opened his snuff-box with a great noise, as the young girl made the light repast, which soon brought the color to her cheek again, or, at least, the usual color, for her face was, ordinarily, very pale. Large eyes, grave and gentle, gray rather than blue, shadowed by lashes as black as her hair, made her face singular and striking. Yet, in spite of this singularity, in spite of her paleness, the delicacy of her features, and her slender figure with its willowy grace, if one wished to describe in two words the general impression produced by the aspect of Fleurange d'Yves, one would have chosen these: simplicity and strength."

"Love is — I know not what; which comes — I know not whence; which is formed — I know not how; which enchants — I know not by what; and which ends — I know not when or why."

"Love makes mutes of those who habitually speak most fluently."

"Love is a capricious creature which desires everything and can be contented with almost nothing."

"How many people assume boldly the mask of virtue!"

"La victoire me suit, et tout suit la victoire."

"Et vaincre sans péril serait vaincre sans gloire."

"Women should despise slander, and fear to provoke it."

"The head, however strong it may be, can accomplish nothing against the heart."

"Le cœur de l'homme est un grand fripon!"

"Parfois, dans un coin triste et noir pousse une fleur."

"Le temps qui s’écoule fait bien ; Et mourir ne doit être rien, Puisque vivre est si peu de chose."

"Le vicomte, percé d’une longueur de lame, Tomba, fit un sursaut ou deux, et rendit l’âme. Alors, en rajustant au vainqueur son pourpoint, L’un des soldats lui dit: ::Vous le haïssiez? :::— Point. — Peut-on vous demander la cause de l’affaire? — La couleur des cheveux qu’il convient qu’on préfère. Il était pour les noirs, moi je suis pour les blonds. — Vous avez été vif, mon gentilhomme… Allons! Pour cheveux blonds ou noirs faut-il qu’on se courrouce? — C’est vrai, dit le bretteur, car ma maîtresse est rousse."

"Il faut donner, donner, donner !"

"(Car) le poète a pour monnaie Des étoiles dans son gousset."