quotations about France
France bleeds, but liberty smiles; and in the presence of liberty's smile, France forgets her wound.
VICTOR HUGO
Les Misérables
The creation of Modern France through expansion goes back to the establishment of a small kingdom in the area around Paris in the late tenth century and was not completed until the incorporation of Nice and Savoy in 1860. The existing "hexagon" was the result of a long series of wars and conquests involving the triumph of French language and culture over what once were autonomous and culturally distinctive communities. The assimilation of Gascons, Savoyards, Occitans, Basques, and others helped to sustain the myth that French overseas expansionism in the nineteenth century, especially to North and West Africa, was a continuation of the same assimilationist project.
GEORGE M. FREDRICKSON
Race, Ethnicity, and National Identity in France and the United States
In France the men all live in cafes, the children are all put out to nurse, and the women, saving the respect of mademoiselle -- well, the less said about them the better.
WILLIAM JOHN LOCKE
The Joyous Adventures of Aristide Pujol
With respect to modern languages, French, as I have before observed, is indispensible.
THOMAS JEFFERSON
letter to Thomas Mann Randolph, July 6, 1787
So don't go to Paris, France
Not unless you like to dance
Not unless you want romance
Like those poor inhabitants of Paree
ROSEMARY CLOONEY
"Poor People of Paris"
France is like a house where guests are not expected. Her doors are closed; her shutters are down. She is burning tapers within for her dead, and preparing the mysteries of death for her enemies. She is not at home to strangers. One feels that at every turn, as if to come here at all is an intrusion.
CORRA HARRIS
"The Women of France", The Saturday Evening Post, December 12, 1914
I have never liked France or the French, and I have never stopped saying so.
ADOLF HITLER
The Political Testament of Adolf Hitler
One knows in France 685 different ways of preparing eggs.
DE LA REYNIERE
attributed, Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations
What is now the EU was set up so that France and Germany could hug each other so tightly in a loving embrace that neither would be able to get an arm free with which to punch the other.
TIM MARSHALL
Prisoners of Geography