Anatole France Quotes

Man is a clever animal who behaves like an imbecile.

It is one of man's curious idiosyncrasies to create difficulties for the pleasure of resolving them.

He thought as a sage, though he felt like a man.

Homo sapiens, the only creature endowed with reason, is also the only creature to pin its existence on things unreasonable.

But it is no good using the tongs of reason to pull the Fundamentalists' chestnuts out of the fire of contradiction. Their real troubles lie elsewhere.

Logic is one thing, the human animal another. You can quite easily propose a logical solution to something and at the same time hope in your heart of hearts it won't work out.

Our occasional madness is less wonderful than our occasional sanity.

Passion often renders the most clever man a fool, and sometimes renders the most foolish man clever.

We are all hunting for rational reasons for believing in the absurd.

To the extent to which a man is rational, life is the premise directing his actions. To the extent to which he is irrational, the premise directing his actions is death.

It seems like topsy-turvyland to make reason serve the irrational. Yet that is just what it has always done, and ought always to do.

Credo quia absurdum – I believe because it is absurd.

Curious how often you Humans manage to obtain that which you do not want.

The real trouble with this world of ours is not that it is an unreasonable one. The trouble is that it is nearly reasonable, but not quite.

Every man is a mob, a chain gang of idiots.

Rationally I have no hope, irrationally I believe in miracles.

Absurdity is one of the most human things about us: a manifestation of our most advanced and interesting characteristics.

Reason is so unreasonable, that few people can say they are in possession of it.

Certain kinds of foolishness are such that a greater foolishness would be better.

Human nature is not obliged to be consistent.

Mankind cannot get on without a certain amount of absurdity.

What is ridiculous about human beings, Doctor,' the prince said, 'is actually their total incapacity to be ridiculous

How it chanced that a man who reasoned on his premises so ably, should assume his premises so foolishly, is one of the great mysteries of human nature.

Are we, then, insane because we have not gone mad?

We cannot reason ourselves out of our basic irrationality. All we can do is to learn the art of being irrational in a reasonable way.