it is human nature to think wisely and to act in an absurd fashion.
~ Anatole France
I liked him so much in my early 20s, without understanding a word of what he was talking about. Oh, Penguin Island was a satire on France & the Dreyfuss Affair? Why did I like to read so much when I had no idea what any of it added up to?
The French language is a woman. And that woman is so beautiful, so proud, so modest, so bold, so touching, so voluptuous, so chaste, so noble, so familiar, so mad, so wise, that one loves her with all one's soul and is never tempted to be unfaithful to her.
~ Anatole France (1844-1924), quoted by Ostler in Empires of the Word, who notes this as "characteristically self-conscious & self-regarding," I think of the French in general & not France in particular.
I feel like I am more immersed in English when I study other languages, & see their influence & variants. It's really such a silly thing to say. Unless you're French.