Ален цитаты

„Человек занят тем, от чего он ожидает счастья, но его настоящее счастье в том, что он занят.“

„Создай «Общество честных людей», и в него вступят все воры.“

„Сама вера и есть Бог.“

„Всякое искусство — как зеркало, в котором человек познаёт и признаёт что-то о себе, чего не знал раньше.“

„Правило гигиены: никогда не думай одну и ту же мысль дважды.“

„Честь нации — это заряженное ружье.“

„Во всяком искусстве произведение рождает мысль, а не наоборот.“

„Ни один оратор не думает, когда говорит; ни одна аудитория не думает, когда слушает.“

„Удовольствия любви заставляют забыть о любви к удовольствиям.“

„Самое трудное — это сказать обдуманно то, что все говорят не думая.“

„Самые непослушные из управляемых становятся самыми суровыми правителями.“

„Искусство писать предшествует искусству мыслить.“

„Удивительный парадокс: граждане гораздо охотнее жертвуют своей жизнью, чем своими деньгами.“

„Женские драгоценности выставляют напоказ мужское тщеславие.“

„Не стоит труда верить в то, во что нетрудно поверить.“

„Говорят, что новыми поколениями будет трудно управлять. В таком случае я надеюсь на лучшее.“

„Сопротивление и послушание две добродетели гражданина. Послушание обеспечивает порядок; сопротивление обеспечивает свободу.“

„Все мы чувствительны, когда выступаем в роли зрителей. Все мы бесчувственны, когда действуем.“

„Глупец, который случайно говорит правду, всё равно ошибается.“

„Миром правят не интересы, а страсти.“

„Храбрость вскармливает войны, но рождает их страх.“

„Всякая откровенность есть лжесвидетельство.“

„Пунктуальность — вежливость поездов.“

„Смерть — это болезнь воображения.“

“Man himself is an enigma in motion”

“Nothing is more dangerous than an idea, when you have only one idea.”

“Any kind of barbarism, once established, will last.”

“Every boat is copied from another boat…”

“One must preach life, not death; spread hope, not fear and cultivate joy, man's most valuable treasure. That is the secret of the greatest of the wise, and it wil be the light of tomorrow.”

“May the Gods, if they did not die of boredom, never give you one of those flat kingdoms to govern; may lead you through mountain paths; may they give you for a companion a good Andalusian mule with eyes like wells, a brow like an anvil, and who stops dead in his tracks because he sees the shadow his ears make on the road in front of him.”

“It is clear that in mulling over harsh judgments, sinister predictions, and bad memories, we fashion our own sadness; in a certain sense, we savor it.”

“Happiness is a reward that comes to those that have not looked for it.”

“Politeness is for people toward whom we feel indifferent, and moods, both good and bad, are for those we love.”

“We are advised and led along by second-rate moralists who only know how to work themselves into a delirium and pass their illness onto others.”

“Work is the best and worst of all things; the best of it is voluntary, the worst of it is servile.”

“Humanity will have to extricate itself from the bags created by false moralists, according to whom we taste happiness and then pass judgment on it, as if it were a piece of fruit. But I maintain that even for a piece of fruit we can do something to help it taste good. This is even truer of marriage and every other human relationship; these things are not meant to be tasted or passively accepted; they must be made. A relationship is not like a bit of shade where one is comfortable or uncomfortable depending on the weather and the way the wind is blowing. On the contrary, it is a place of miracles, where the magician makes the rain and the good weather.”

“Everybody continually tries to get away with as much as he can; and society is a marvelous machine which allows decent people to be cruel without realizing it.”

“Our errors perish before we do. Let's not mummify them and keep them around.”

“Aristotle's pupil already realized that we have no power at all over our passions as long as we do not know their true causes. Many men have refuted fear, and with sound arguments. But a man who is afraid does not listen to arguments; he listens to the beating of his heart and the pulsating of his blood.”

“Every menial condition is bearable as long as one can exercise authority over one's work and be assured that the job is permanent.”

“When people ask me if the division between parties of the right and parties of the left, men of the right and men of the left, still makes sense, the first thing that comes to mind is that the person asking the question is certainly not a man of the left.”

“In short, the important thing is to get started. No matter how; then there will be time to ask yourself where you are going.”

“Idleness is the mother of all vices, but also of all virtues.”

“Obligation spoils everything.”

“Untie, liberate, and do not be afraid. He who is free is disarmed.”

“Each one gave the other the only assistance one man can expect from another: that his friend support him and ask only that he remain himself. It is no great accomplishment to take people as they are, and we must always do so eventually, but to wish them to be as they are, that is a genuine love.”

“Thought is saying no, and it is to itself that thought says no.”

“Never be insolent unless it is a deliberate decision, and only toward a man more powerful than yourself.”

“If religion is only human, and its form is man’s form, it follows that everything in religion is true.”

“We prove what we want to prove, and the real difficulty is to know what we want to prove.”

“An author of antiquity said that every event has two handles, and that, in order to carry it, there is no sense in choosing the one that hurts the hand.”

“Certainly thinking is pleasant, but the pleasure of thinking must be subordinated to the art of making decisions.”

“It is very true that we ought to think of the happiness of others; but it is not often enough said that the best thing we can do for those who love us is to be happy ourselves.”