Anatole France Quotes

Whoever increases the sum of human joy, is a worshiper. He who adds to the sum of human misery, is a blasphemer.

There is no happiness for people at the expense of other people.

More company increases happiness, but does not lighten or diminish misery.

The Japanese style, they really do have concern for their neighbors kind of more than themselves.

It is not a sin to be happy, it is not a virtue to be miserable.

The happiest is he who suffers least; the most miserable is he who enjoys least.

Does is make the dragon happy?" Matt asked. "Does is make the dragon happy?" echoed Tam Lin. "Why, I never thought of that. I suppose it does. What other pleasure can a creature have whose life consists of making everyone else miserable?

It is selfishness which is the cause of most of our misery.

Many things can make you miserable for weeks; few can bring you a whole day of happiness.

Believing that I was born for the service of mankind, and regarding the care of the commonwealth as a kind of common property which, like the air and the water, belongs to everybody, I set myself to consider in what way mankind might be best served, and what service I was myself best fitted by nature to perform.

Create all the happiness you are able to create; remove all the misery you are able to remove.

I'm perfectly miserable; but if you consider me presentable, I die happy.

Lack of understanding of the true nature of happiness, it seems to me, is the principal reason why people inflict sufferings on others. They think either that the other's pain may somehow be a cause of happiness for themselves or that their own happiness is more important, regardless of what pain it may cause. But this is shortsighted. No one truly benefits from causing harm to another sentient being. . . . . In the long run causing others misery and infringing their rights to peace and happiness result in anxiety, fear, and suspicion within oneself.

We need to really start taking care of each other and not profiting off of each other's miseries. That shouldn't be our reality. That shouldn't be what we aspire to. It's not admirable in any way, shape, or form.

If we are to extract any joy out of our span, we must think and plan and make things better not only for ourselves but for others, since joy for ourselves depends upon our joy in others and theirs in us.

I, a miserable wretch, haunted by a curse that shut up every avenue to enjoyment.

Be warned that if you wish, as I do, to build a society in which individuals cooperate generously and unselfishly towards a common good, you can expect little help from biological nature. Let us try to teach generosity and altruism, because we are born selfish.

But the "wise" person understands something else— that we are all connected and, therefore, his or her own happiness must include the happiness of others.

Charity means love towards the neighbor and compassion, for anyone who loves his neighbor as himself also has as much compassion for him in his suffering as he does for himself in his own.

There are no greater wretches in the world than many of those whom people in general take to be happy.

No one told me that you could be alive and be happy. No one told me, and if someone had I wouldn't have believed them. I thought that you had to die - physically die - to escape.

Every small thing grows when you nurture it, Rosie. Love is just the same. But if that is making you miserable then, leave and find something else that brings you happiness you deserve to feel.

We ought never to scoff at the wretched, for who can be sure of continued happiness?

The habit of being uniformly considerate toward others will bring to you increased happiness.