quotations about France
France is like a Rubik's cube whose parts don't quite fit together. From the outside it might look like the pieces are lined neatly, but inside they are misshapen and don't match. At the center is Paris, holding everything together. Hold it too softly, and the pieces fall apart. Push too hard and the pieces break.
MICHEL PASSPARTOUT
attributed, "To Understand France's Crisis, You Must First Understand Its Cheese", Buzzfeed, December 20, 2018
The Frenchman, easy, debonair, and brisk,
Give him his lass, his fiddle, and his frisk,
Is always happy, reign whoever may,
And laughs the sense of mis'ry far away.
WILLIAM COWPER
Table Talk
I hate the French because they are all slaves and wear wooden shoes.
OLIVER GOLDSMITH
Essays
I was lost in France
And the vines were over-flowing
I was lost in France
And a millioni stars were glowing
And I looked round for a telephone
To say 'baby I won't be home'
I was lost in France in love
BONNIE TYLER
"Lost in France", The World Starts Tonight
Let's face it, the French Army couldn't beat a girls hockey team.
BILL BRYSON
Neither Here nor There: Travels in Europe
Gay, sprightly, land of mirth and social ease
Pleased with thyself, whom all the world can please.
OLIVER GOLDSMITH
The Traveller
At the risk of sounding like a boozehound, one of my favorite things about visiting France is its approach to happy hour. Filling the interlude between the end of the workday and dinnertime, "l'heure de l'apéro" is a time to relax, catch up with friends, and celebrate the beginning of the night. Unlike its American counterpart, this French ritual is less about getting drunk on cheap beer and wolfing down greasy nachos, and more about sipping light, refreshing cocktails paired with snacks designed to wet your appetite--not destroy it.
ERICA JACKSON CURRAN
"Bar Fly: Falling for l'heure de l'apéro at Swan Dive", Richmond, November 20, 2018
They had spent a year in France for no particular reason, and then drifted here and there unrestfully wherever people played polo and were rich together.
F. SCOTT FITZGERALD
The Great Gatsby
France is like a shell-shocked soldier, her body wasted, her mind is abnormal. The attitude of America under these conditions should be one of patience and tender sympathy.
NEWTON MARSHALL
"France Victorious But Tragic", The Congregationalist, November 2, 1922
The most beautiful county is Flanders; the most beautiful duchy, Milan; the most beautiful kingdom, France.
VICTOR HUGO
Notre Dame de Paris
In France, cooking is a serious art form and a national sport.
JULIA CHILD
New York Times, Nov. 26, 1986
The Trump-Cruz police state exists. It's called France.
ELI LAKE
Bloomberg, 2016
What's the big deal with France? How come everyone wants to go there? Let me tell you about France. Their music sucks. Their movies suck. Their berets suck. Their croissants are pretty good, but the place overall still sucks.
DAVID LEVITHAN
Naomi and Ely's No Kiss List
France is an absolute monarchy, tempered by ballads.
CHAMFORT
attributed, Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations
France may be the only country in the world where the rich are sometimes brilliant.
LILLIAN HELLMAN
An Unfinished Woman
France, famed in all great arts, in none supreme.
MATTHEW ARNOLD
"To a Republican Friend", The Strayed Reveller and Other Poems
That sweet enemy, France.
PHILIP SIDNEY
Astrophel and Stella
But of Paris it can be said that the right bank of the Seine belongs to the world, and the left bank to France.
MARY BUTTS
The Complete Stories
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
I like France, where everybody thinks he's Napoleon--down here everybody thinks he's Christ.
F. SCOTT FITZGERALD
Tender Is the Night