Hitler was the archetype of the abstemious man. When the other krauts saw him drink water in the Beer Hall they should have known he was not to be trusted.

The lives of thousands of young Frenchmen were ready for this literary bath of blood and sentiment in the 1830’s. Their fathers and grandfathers had had their romanticism in the raw: the drama of the...

Foreigners don’t want to invest any more in France – and this is not working.

Humans are curious creatures. What we cannot see, our logical minds will try to deny.

…it has always been my temperament to prefer a tiny amount of the excellent to a plenitude of the mediocre…

This medical view of an ideal male who was insulated from pathogens was inextricably bound up with a parallel discourse about the maintenance of strong ego boundaries, a psychic investment in one’s bodily peripheries that...

This is what you British do not understand about the French. You think you must work, work, work, work and open on Sundays and make mothers and fathers with families slave in supermarkets at three...

In 1902, Marcellin P. Berthelot, often called the founder of modern organic chemistry, was one of France’s most celebrated scientists—if not the world’s. He was permanent secretary of the French Academy, having succeeded the giant...

A little while ago, I stood by the grave of the old Napoleon—a magnificent tomb of gilt and gold, fit almost for a dead deity—and gazed upon the sarcophagus of rare and nameless marble, where...

Tous les chagrins sont méprisants, imprenables, perchés à des hauteurs que personne ne peux rejoindre. Peut-être a-t-on trop peur qu’une consolation efface ce qu’il reste des souvenirs.

Of course, my Christmas is (so much more) gorgeous and romantic (than Germany’s)!! And unlike the rest of the world, we leave wine behind for Santa Claus!””So Santa-san is delivering gifts to children while driving...

If I walked down by different streets to the Jardin du Luxembourg in the afternoon I could walk through the gardens and then go to the Musée du Luxembourg where the great paintings were that...

And I had just kissed my ex-girlfriend, who had cried, while my current girlfriend was in jail. So far, it had not been my best day.

Je parle français.” Indira gave me a weird look. Or a look that said I was weird. Whichever. The point is, I don’t really speak French, but it’s a useful phrase for confusing people you...

With heart at rest I climbed the citadel’sSteep height, and saw the city as from a tower,Hospital, brothel, prison, and such hells,Where evil comes up softly like a flower.Thou knowest, O Satan, patron of my...

…all the men in the photograph wear puttees. All the men in the picture are bound, trying to keep themselves together. That is how considerate they are, for the love of God and country and...

A country like France now does two-thirds of its trade within the euro zone.

For with all that is grand, grander is the expansion of the mind.

Don’t push me, I’m hormonal.”I’m not really a lousy detective, just rough around the edges.

In France they don’t think I’m difficult.

Gay-Lussac was quick, lively, ingenious and profound, with great activity of mind and great facility of manipulation. I should place him at the head of all the living chemists in France.

They have a very low rate for attempted murder and a high rate for successfully concluded murder. It seems that when a French person sets out to kill someone, they make a good job of...

Veni, vidi, vici. That was easy for Julius Caesar to say; he crossed Italy in a chariot, not on a stupid bike.” – Vivia

Elle voulait autre chose. Des mains qui se touchent sans rien donner.

As every circumstance relating to so capital a discovery as this (the greatest, perhaps, that has been made in the whole compass of philosophy, since the time of Sir Isaac Newton) cannot but give pleasure...

My wife and I had called on Miss Stein, and she and the friend who lived with her had been very cordial and friendly and we had loved the big studio with the great paintings....

Never run upstairs when someone’s chasing you. Don’t try to quick-draw a man who already has his gun out. Never light a match in the dark in a strange building. Half of staying safe is...

If you ask the great city, ‘Who is this person?,’ she will answer, ‘He is my child.

Paris n’est pas une ville, c’est un pays.

The Algerians were revolutionsists, they wanted land. France offered to let them be integrated into France. They told France, to hell with Fance, they wanted some land, not some France.

Like the magnolia tree, She bends with the wind,Trials and tribulation may weather her, Yet, after the storm her beauty blooms, See her standing there, like steel, With her roots forever buried,Deep in her Southern...

A breath of laughter will blow a Government out of existence in Paris much more effectually than a whiff of cannon-smoke

I regard anti-Semitism as ineradicable and as one element of the toxin with which religion has infected us. Perhaps partly for this reason, I have never been able to see Zionism as a cure for...

do not look on me with those dear, scared eyes of yours. If there is aught that puzzles you in what I said, try and trust me a little longer. Remember, I must save the...

It was then I thought of Corsica, the place we had discovered together. I craved the wind, the sun and salt, the simplicity of the island.

The Comtesse’s fellow prisoners in this antechamber to death were characteristic of the ill-assorted gatherings thrown together in Revolutionary prisons: duchesses and prostitutes, actresses and politicians: the Duchesse de Crequy-Montmorency and Madame Roland; Madame du...

Above all, let’s hope we never take ourselves too seriously.

You know, sometimes I don’t understand what’s wrong with us. This is just about the most creative and imaginative country on earth—and yet sometimes we just don’t seem to have the gumption to exploit our...

I wore only black socks, because I had heard that white ones were the classic sign of the American tourist. Black ones though,- those’ll fool ’em. I supposed I hoped the European locals’ conversation would...

Ils jetteront la France dans de terribles aventures, la bouleverseront légalement, la ruineront légalement. […] Cette débauche du socialisme imbécile et sanguinaire (voir les deux Guerres mondiales…) finira par allumer un incendie, qui sera pour...

The French have a penchant for absolutism, for thinking that things are all one way or all another, which is why their politics are marked by a general inability to compromise and why they tend...

A beautiful white silk scarf was around her neck, tucked below the fur collar. Her lips were well painted into a bright red cupid’s bow. Cute as hell I always told myself, with a tinge...

And the One will take the Sword of the Western Sun and triumph over the enemy with boldness and insight. The arm of the One is steady and heads will roll. Snow Giants will battle

I thought the French were supposed to be so polite,” said Harriet indignantly.Maybe it can’t be proven statistically, but it’s a safe bet that any given American on his or her first trip to France...

To evoke another great phrase of the American revolutionary heritage — widely though inconclusively attributed to Thomas Jefferson — the price of liberty is eternal vigilance. Such a phrase is merely trite, however, unless we...

Sea and land may lie between us, but my heart is always there with you.

The French have the right respect for dogs–in France we chiens get to go to lunch and dinner anytime, anywhere.

Long before it was known to me as a place where my ancestry was even remotely involved, the idea of a state for Jews (or a Jewish state; not quite the same thing, as I...

All those who prefer peace to power, and happiness to glory should thank the colonized people for their civilizing mission. By liberating themselves, they made Europeans more modest, less racist, and more human. Let us...

For gypsies do not like to stay -They only come to go away.