Quotes by French Authors - Page 23

Happy is the man who can do only one thing: in doing it he fulfills his destiny.
Joseph Joubert
We are never so happy nor so unhappy as we suppose ourselves to be.
La Rochefoucauld
Everyone speaks of it few know it.
Mme. Jeanne P. Roland
I look at what I have not and think myself unhappy others look at what I have and think me happy.
Joseph Roux
Happiness? That's nothing more than health and a poor memory.
Albert Schweitzer
When unhappy one doubts everything when happy one doubts nothing.
Joseph Roux
A great obstacle to happiness is to expect too much happiness.
Bernard de Fontenelle
We never enjoy perfect happiness our most fortunate successes are mingled with sadness some anxieties always perplex the reality of our satisfaction.
Pierre Corneille
What a wonderful life I've had! I only wish I'd realized it sooner.
Colette
Happiness lies in the consciousness we have of it.
George Sand
There are men who are happy without knowing it.
Vauvenargues
To describe happiness is to diminish it.
Stendhal
What we call happiness is what we do not know.
Anatole France
The first recipe for happiness is: Avoid too lengthy meditations on the past.
André Maurois
It is an aspect of all happiness to suppose that we deserve it.
Joseph Joubert
Happy is the man who can do only one thing in doing it he fulfills his destiny.
Joseph Joubert
Be happy. It's one way of being wise.
Colette
Hope costs nothing.
Colette
A man's happiness or unhappiness depends as much on his temperament as on his destiny.
François de La Rochefoucauld
All happiness depends on courage and work.
Honoré de Balzac
1 am happy and content because I think I am.
Alain-Rene Lesage
We are never so happy or so unhappy as we think.
François de La Rochefoucauld
Misery is almost always the result of thinking.
Joseph Joubert
Unhappiness indicates wrong thinking just as ill health indicates a bad regimen.
Paul Bourget
The most satisfying thing in life is to have been able to give a large part of oneself to others.
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
Instinct teaches us to look for happiness outside ourselves.
Blaise Pascal
One thing I know: the only ones among you who will be really happy are those who will have sought and found how to serve.
Albert Schweitzer
All the goodness beauty and perfection of a human being belong to the one who knows how to recognize these qualities.
Georgette Leblanc
A multitude of small delights constitute happiness.
Charles Baudelaire
The happiness of most people is not ruined by great catastrophes or fatal errors but by the repetition of slowly destructive little things.
Ernest Dimnet
What would life be without art? Science prolongs life. To consist of what-eating drinking and sleeping? What is the good of living longer if it is only a matter of satisfying the requirements that sustain life? All this is nothing without the charm of art.
Sarah Bernhardt
Without duty life is soft and bone less.
Joseph Joubert
The only ones among you who will be really happy are those who will have sought and found how to serve.
Albert Schweitzer
We must not seek happiness in peace but in conflict.
Paul Claudel
But what is happiness except the simple harmony between a man and the life he leads?
Albert Camus
If we have not peace within ourselves it is in vain to seek it from outward sources.
François de La Rochefoucauld
In order to be utterly happy the only thing necessary is to refrain from comparing this moment with other moments in the past which I often did not fully enjoy because I was comparing them with other moments of the future.
André Gide
One is happy as a result of one's own efforts-once one knows the necessary ingredients of happiness-simple tastes a certain degree of courage self-denial to a point love of work and above all a clear conscience.
George Sand
This is wisdom: to love wine beauty and the heavenly spring. That's sufficient-the rest is worthless.
Theodore De Banville
To love deeply in one direction makes us more loving in all others.
Anne-Sophie Swetchine
To win one's joy through struggle is better than to yield to melancholy.
André Gide
Few are they who have never had the chance to achieve happiness ... and fewer those who have taken that chance.
André Maurois
All men have happiness as their object: there are no exceptions. However different the means they employ they aim at the same end.
Blaise Pascal
False happiness renders men stern and proud and that happiness is never communicated. True happiness renders kind and sensible and that happiness is always shared.
Charles de Montesquieu
I will not be just a tourist in the world of images just watching images passing by which I cannot live in make love to possess as permanent sources of joy and ecstasy.
Anaïs Nin
Age does not protect you from love but love to some extent protects you from age.
Jeanne Moreau
Without pleasure man would live like a fool and soon die.
Pierre de Beaumarchais
Everyone without exception is searching for happiness.
Blaise Pascal
The happiness which is lacking makes one think even the happiness one has unbearable.
Joseph Roux
To be happy we must not be too concerned with others.
Albert Camus
I am happy and content because I think I am.
Alain-Rene Lesage
It has never been given to a man to attain at once his happiness and his salvation.
Charles Péguy
Servitude debases men to the point where they end up liking it.
Vauvenargues
Custom is second nature and no less powerful.
Michel Eyquem Montaigne
Heavy hearts like heavy clouds in the sky are best relieved by the letting of water.
Antoine de Rivarol
We risk all in being too greedy.
Jean de La Fontaine
The nearer we come to great men the more clearly we see that they are only men. They rarely seem great to their valets.
Jean de La Bruyère
It is the prerogative of great men only to have great defects.
La Rochefoucauld
The mind reaches great heights only by spurts.
Vauvenargues
Greatness is a road leading towards the unknown.
Charles de Gaulle