This is a growing collection of quotations I find interesting. The most recent comes first.
« Un défaut qui empêche les hommes d'agir, c'est de ne pas sentir de quoi ils sont capables. »
A fault that prevents humans from taking action, it's of not feeling what they are capable of.
—Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet
« Le véritable voyage n'est pas d'aller vers d'autres paysages, mais d'avoir d'autres yeux. »
The true voyage is not of going to other sceneries, but of having other eyes.
—Marcel Proust
« L'amour de la justice n'est pour la plupart des hommes que la crainte de souffrir l'injustice »
The love of justice is merely for the majority of humans the fear of suffering from injustice.
—La Rochefoucauld
« Tant de mains pour transformer ce monde et si peu de regards pour le contempler. »
So many hands for transforming this world and only a few sights for contemplating it.
—Julien Gracq« Il n'y a que ceux qui sont dans les batailles qui les gagnent. »
There are only those who are in the battles who win them.
—Saint-Just
« Trop d'info tue l'info. »
Too much information kills information.
—French proverb
« Qui n'entend qu'une cloche n'entend qu'un son. »
Whoever hears only one bell hears only one sound.
—French proverb
« Signore, fa di me uno strumento della tua pace, del tuo amore. »
Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace, of thy love.
—San Francesco d'Assisi
« Tradurre è tradire. »
To translate is to betray.
—Italian proverb
« Ce n'est pas parce qu'en hiver on dit "fermez la porte, il fait froid dehors", qu'il fait moins froid dehors quand la porte est fermée. »
It's not because in winter one says 'Close the door, it's cold outside,' that it becomes less cold outside when the door is closed.
—Pierre Dac
« L'anglais ? Ce n'est jamais que du français mal prononcé. »
English? It is just badly-pronounced French.
—Georges Clemenceau, French prime minister
« I speak French to my ambassadors, English to my accountant, Italian to my mistress, Latin to my God, and German to my horse. »
—Friedrich der Große, King of Prussia
German authors « pile parenthesis upon parenthesis, and often you find only at the end of an entire page the verb on which depends the meaning of the whole sentence. »
—Friedrich der Große, King of Prussia
« Whenever the literary German dives into a sentence, that is the last you are going to see of him till he emerges on the other side of his Atlantic with his verb in his mouth. »
—Mark Twain (1889)
« Ce qui n'est pas clair n'est pas français ; ce qui n'est pas clair est encore anglais, italien, grec ou latin. »
What is not clear is not French; what is not clear is still English, Italian, Greek, or Latin.
—Antoine de Rivarol, 'De l'universalité de la langue française' (1784)
« No matter your other language achievement, you will be judged by your French. »
—Barry Farber, American polyglot and radio chat-show host; he speaks 25 languages
« Emperor Charles V used to say, as I hear, that the language of the Germans was military; that of the Spaniards pertained to love; that of the Italians was oratorical; that of the French was noble. »
—Girolamo Fabrizi d'Acquapendente. "De Locutione" (1601)
« Indeed another, who was German, related that the same Charles V sometimes used to say: if it was necessary to talk with God, that he would talk in Spanish, which language suggests itself for the graveness and majesty of the Spaniards; if with friends, in Italian, for the dialect of the Italians was one of familiarity; if to caress someone, in French, for no language is tenderer than theirs; if to threaten someone or to speak harshly to them, in German, for their entire language is threatening, rough and vehement. »
—Girolamo Fabrizi d'Acquapendente. "De Locutione" (1601)
« The limits of my language mean the limits of my world. »
—Ludwig Wittgenstein
« untuk negeriku Indonesia yang dengan sedih aku cinta »
For my country Indonesia which I love in sorrow
—Ayu Utami, Bilangan Fu
« Two questions to be asked before you sleep: (1) 'Am I happy today?', (2) Have I made someone happy today?' If both answers are 'Yes', then the day is done. »
—Fr Enrico Gonzales, OP
« PEOPLE are the channel that languages come out of and if you don’t use the language to communicate with human beings, then it’s just a faceless list of grammar rules and vocabulary tables. »
—Benny Lewis, fluentin3months.com
« Where there is love, there is God. »
—a key chain given by my bosom friend
« Dreams Demand Deadlines »
—myself
« Ζητω την αληθειαν »
(Zētō tēn alētheian)
I'm seeking the Truth.
—myself
« Ex Philosophia Claritas »
Out of philosophy, comes clarity.
—STF Driyarkara
« ό δε ανεξεταστος βιος ου βιωτος ανθρωπῳ »
(ho de anexetastos bios ou biōtos anthrōpōi)
The unexamined life is not worth living.
—Socrates
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