#france

You are hard at work madam ," said the man near her. Yes," Answered Madam Defarge ; " I have a good deal to do." What do you make, Madam ?" Many things." For instance ---" For instance," returned Madam Defarge , composedly , Shrouds." The man moved a little further away, as soon as he could, feeling it mightily close and oppressive . ↗

— Charles Dickens

#france #funny #humor #mob #revolution

The guillotine is the ultimate expression of Law, and its name is vengeance; it is not neutral, nor does it allow us to remain neutral. All social questions achieve their finality around that blade. The scaffold is an image. It is not merely a framework, a machine, a lifeless mechanism of wood, iron, and rope. It is as though it were a being having its own dark purpose, as though the framework saw, the machine listened, and the mechanism understood; as though that arrangement of wood and iron and rope expressed a will. In the hideous picture which its presence evokes it seems to be most terribly a part of what it does. It is the executioner's accomplice; it consumes, devouring flesh and drinking blood. It is a kind of monster created by the judge and the craftsman; a spectre seeming to live an awful life born of the death it deals. ↗

— Victor Hugo

#execution #executioner #france #scaffold #death

There were a Te Deum, clouds of incense, endless volleys of musketry and artillery; the peasants were frantic with joy and piety. Such a day undoes the work of a hundred numbers of the Jacobin papers. ↗

— Stendhal

#political #religion #satirical #social #theredandtheblack

When I ask French parents what they most want for their children, they say things like "to feel comfortable in their own skin" and "to find their path in the world." They want their kids to develop their own tastes and opinions. In fact, French parents worry if their kids are too docile. They want them to have character. But they believe that children can achieve these goals only if they respect boundaries and have self-control. So alongside character, there has to be cadre. ↗

— Pamela Druckerman

#character #france #parenting #respect

Well, I grew up between Holland and Israel and then moved to France when I was eleven. ↗

— Keren Ann

#eleven #france #grew #holland #i

Today's cinema is a global art form, it is impossible to make movies for a market the size of France, representing no more than 4% of the world's total. ↗

— Jean-Jacques Annaud

#art form #cinema #form #france #global

Of the love or hatred God has for the English, I know nothing, but I do know that they will all be thrown out of France, except those who die there. ↗

— Joan of Arc

#english #except #france #god #hatred

At the beginning of the twentieth century, every single leading Muslim intellectual was in love with the west, and wanted their countries to look just like Britain and France. ↗

— Karen Armstrong

#britain #century #countries #every #france

Creating a top team and being in a position to win the Tour de France will give me a nice feeling. But I know it is not easy to create a top team from zero. You need good riders, good staff, a lot of preparation and, most important, a lot of sponsors. ↗

— Fernando Alonso

#create #creating #easy #feeling #france

France is not poetic; she even feels, in fact, a congenital horror of poetry. Among the writers who use verse, those whom she will always prefer are the most prosaic. ↗

— Charles Baudelaire

#among #even #fact #feels #france