Anatole France Quotes

Those prepared to die for the truth, as a rule make many others die with them, often before them, and at times instead of them.

We would not let ourselves be burned to death for our opinions: we are not sure enough of them for that.

As Hitler himself later enunciated, it matters not how idiotic the creed, what matters is the firmness with which it is enunciated.

Men will die for an opinion as soon as for anything else.

Be willing to die for your beliefs, or computer printouts of your beliefs.

I cannot comprehend fundamentalism. It's fundamentally wrong.

I'm intrigued by fanatics - people who are seduced by the promise, or the illusion, of the absolute.

The fanatic is incorruptible: if he kills for an idea, he can just as well get himself killed for one; in either case, tyrant or martyr, he is a monster.

How can you tell when a political ideology has become the equivalent of a religion?

Nothing is so sure of itself as fanaticism.

We love death as much as the Westerners love life. Therefore we will win.

Men love their ideas more than their lives. And the more preposterous the idea, the more eager they are to die for it. And to kill for it.

Dogmation is puppyism come to its full growth.

A fanatic's willingness to kill or be killed in the service of a cause cannot prove the rightness of that cause.

When ideology and theology couple, their offspring are not always bad but they are always blind.

Fanaticism is not a state of religion but a state of mind.

Hamas does not care about the lives of Palestinians. [They don't] care about the lives of Israelis or Americans. They don't care about their own lives. They consider dying for the sake of their ideology a way of worship.

To stand up for truth is nothing. For truth, you must sit in jail.

Virtue has many preachers, but few martyrs.

there is no fanatic like a religious fanatic.

I may be crucified for my beliefs and, if I am, you can say, "He died to make men free.”

In France, even heresy rapidly hardens into dogma.

Only fanatics — in religion as well as in politics — can find a meaning in someone else’s death.

I don't care if I end up in jail or Guantánamo or whatever, kicked out of a plane with two gunshots in the face. I did what I did because I believe it is the right thing to do, and I will continue to do that.

Fanaticism in religion is the alliance of the passions she condemns with the dogmas she professes.