“The greatest changes in social life are wrought imperceptibly, and are only seen from afar.”

— Anatole France, The White Stone, 1905, trans. Charles E. Roche, 1910, ch. III

About Anatole France

1844 – 1924

French poet, journalist and novelist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature (1921).

“To accomplish great things we must not only act, but also dream; not only plan, but also believe.”

“What we leave behind us is a part of ourselves; we must die to one life before we can enter another.”

“If it were absolutely necessary to choose, I would rather be guilty of an immoral act than of a cruel one.”

“Most of the change we think we see in life is due to truths being in and out of favor.”

“Progress consists only in the greater clarification of answers to the basic questions of life.”

“Life is a luminous halo, a semi-transparent envelope surrounding us from the beginning of consciousness to the end.”

“Indeed, life would be unliveable, even if I did not notice the change.”

“What's old collapses, times change, / And new life blossoms in the ruins.”

“Progress is / The law of life: man is not Man as yet.”