Jean Anouilh's Quotes

Life has a way of setting things in order and leaving them be. Very tidy, is life.

One cannot weep for the entire world, it is beyond human strength. One must choose.

Some men like to make a little garden out of life and walk down a path.

Talent is like a faucet, while it is open, one must write.

The only immorality is not to do what one has to do when one has to do it.

Tragedy is restful: and the reason is that hope, that foul, deceitful thing, has no part in it.

Until the day of his death, no man can be sure of his courage.

What fun it would be to be poor, as long as one was excessively poor! Anything in excess is most exhilarating.

When you are forty, half of you belongs to the past... And when you are seventy, nearly all of you.

With God, what is terrible is that one never knows whether it's not just a trick of the devil.

Our entire life - consists ultimately in accepting ourselves as we are.

Are you in earnest? Seize this very minute! Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Only engage, and then the mind grows heated. Begin, and then the work will be completed.

Things are beautiful if you love them.

Love is, above all, the gift of oneself.

Oh, love is real enough; you will find it someday, but it has one archenemy - and that is life.

What you get free costs too much.

Life is very nice, but it lacks form. It's the aim of art to give it some.

To say yes, you have to sweat and roll up your sleeves and plunge both hands into life up to the elbows. It is easy to say no, even if saying no means death.

A genius knows how to make himself easily understood without being obvious about it.

Beauty is one of the rare things which does not lead to doubt of God.

Have you noticed that life, with murders and catastrophes and fabulous inheritances, happens almost exclusively in newspapers?

I like reality. It tastes like bread.

Inspiration is a farce that poets have invented to give themselves importance.

Life is a wonderful thing to talk about, or to read about in history books - but it is terrible when one has to live it.

Men create real miracles when they use their God-given courage and intelligence.

Nothing is irreparable in politics.