Quotes from The Gods Will Have Blood

“For a man’s life would become intolerable, if he knew what was going to happen to him. He would be made aware of future evils, and would suffer their agonies in advance, while he would get no joy of present blessings since he would know how they would end. Ignorance is the necessary condition of human happiness, and it has to be admitted that on the whole mankind observes that condition well. We are almost entirely ignorant of ourselves; absolutely of others. In ignorance, we find our bliss; in illusions, our happiness.”
― Anatole France, quote from The Gods Will Have Blood

“Yet, every now and then, there would pass a young girl, slender, fair and desirable, arousing in young men a not ignoble desire to possess her, and stirring in old men regrets for ecstasy not seized and now forever past.”
― Anatole France, quote from The Gods Will Have Blood

“After the usual politeness, the Citizen Brotteaux resumed the thread of his discourse:
'Those who make a trade out of foretelling the future rarely grow rich. Their attempts to deceive are too easily found out and arouse detestation. And yet it would be necessary to detest them much, much more if they foretold the future correctly. For a man's life would become intolerable, if he knew what was going to happen to him. He would be made aware of future evils, and would suffer their agonies in advance, while he would get no joy of present blessings since he would know how they would end. Ignorance is the necessary condition of human happiness, and it has to be admitted that on the whole mankind observes that condition well. We are almost entirely ignorant of ourselves; absolutely of others. In ignorance, we find our bliss; in illusions, our happiness.”
― Anatole France, quote from The Gods Will Have Blood

“But don't you ever tell me the Revolution will bring equality, because men'll never be equal. It's just not possible. They can turn the country upside down and inside out, there'll always be the big people and the little people, the fat ones and the thin ones.”
― Anatole France, quote from The Gods Will Have Blood

“I love reason, but my love does not make me a fanatic,' Brotteaux answered. 'Reason is our guide, a light to show us our way; but if you make a divinity of it, it will blind you and lead you into crime”
― Anatole France, quote from The Gods Will Have Blood

“We ought to love virtue; but it is well to realize that we ought to only because it is a convenient expedient invented by men in order that they may live comfortably together. What we call morality is simply and solely a desperate enterprise, a forlorn hope on the part of our fellow men to reverse the order of the Universe, which is constant strife and murder, blind, ceaseless and implacable. All is self-destruction, and the more I think of it, the more I am convinced that the the Universe is mad.”
― Anatole France, quote from The Gods Will Have Blood

“For our miserable species would never lavish worship on a just and benevolent God from whom they had nothing to fear; they would only feel an empty and thankless gratitude for their benefits. Without purgatory and hell, your God would indeed be a useless creature.”
― Anatole France, quote from The Gods Will Have Blood

“We should adopt his principles and govern men as they are and not as what we'd like them to be.”
― Anatole France, quote from The Gods Will Have Blood

“For you can always tell the gods by their appetite.”
― Anatole France, quote from The Gods Will Have Blood

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Popular quotes

“The ultimate lesson is that science isn’t special – at least not anymore. Maybe back when Einstein talked to Niels Bohr, and there were only a few dozen important workers in every field. But there are now three million researchers in America. It’s no longer a calling, it’s a career. Science is as corruptible a human activity as any other. Its practitioners aren’t saints, they’re human beings, and they do what human beings do – lie, cheat, steal from one another, sue, hide data, fake data, overstate their own importance and denigrate opposing views unfairly. That’s human nature. It isn’t going to change”
― Michael Crichton, quote from Next

“Όταν η παραβίαση ενός ταμπού δεν έχει σαν συνέπεια την τιμωρία του ένοχου, οι πρωτόγονοι βλέπουν να ξυπνά μέσα τους ομαδικά η απειλή κάποιου κινδύνου και τότε εφαρμόζουν οι ίδιοι την τιμωρία. Ο μηχανισμός αυτής της αλληλεγγύης εξηγείται με το με το φόβο του μεταδοτικού παραδείγματος, της παρακίνησης στη μίμιση και της μολυσματικής φύσης του ταμπού. Όταν κάποιος κατόρθωσε να ικανοποιήσει έναν απωθημένο ποθο, τα άλλα μέλη της ομάδας νιώθουν τον πειρασμό να κάνουν το ίδιο και για να τον καταστειλουν τιμωρούν αυτόν που έχει νοιώσει αυτήν την ικανοποίηση και τον φθονούν. Κι έτσι, με το πρόσχημα της εξιλέωσης, έχουν την ευκαιρία να διαπράξουν κι αυτοί την ίδια ανόσια πράξη. Αυτή η βασική αρχή του ανθρώπινου ποινικού συστήματος, απορρέει από τους απωθημένους πόθους κι απ'την εκδίκηση στ' όνομα μιας κοινωνίας που έχει προσβληθεί.”
― Sigmund Freud, quote from Totem and Taboo

“They are less than the mud. You do not get angry at the mud for clinging to your shoe. You wipe it off and never look at it again.”
― Kiersten White, quote from And I Darken

“Piece by piece, you’ll learn—I’ll be takin’ you on the Tour tomorrow.”
― James Dashner, quote from The Maze Runner Series

“Go, my dear, and see how thy grandmamma does, for I hear she has been very ill; carry her a custard, and this little pot of butter.”
― Andrew Lang, quote from The Blue Fairy Book

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About BookQuoters

BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.

Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.