#french

An old walrus-faced waiter attended to me; he had the knack of pouring the coffee and the hot milk from two jugs, held high in the air, and I found this entrancing, as if he were a child's magician. One day he said to me - he had some English - "Why are you sad?" "I'm not sad," I said, and began to cry. Sympathy from strangers can be ruinous. "You should not be sad," he said, gazing at me with his melancholy, leathery walrus eyes. "It must be the love. But you are young and pretty, you will have time to be sad later." The French are connoisseurs of sadness, they know all the kinds. This is why they have bidets. "It is criminal, the love," he said, patting my shoulder. "But none is worse. ↗

— Margaret Atwood

#love #sadness #love

Je t'inventerai Des mots insensés Que tu comprendras Je te parlerai De ces amants-là Qui ont vue deux fois Leurs coeurs s'embraser Je te raconterai L'histoire de ce roi Mort de n'avoir pas Pu te rencontrer Ne me quitte pas Ne me quitte pas Ne me quitte pas ↗

— Jacques Brel

#love #love

People who share the same language, French or Chinese or whatever, have the same vocal cords and emit sounds which are basically the same, as they come from the same throats and lungs. ↗

— Pierre Schaeffer

#chinese #come #cords #emit #french

I would love to see the French spending money to restore Iraq. ↗

— Bob Schaffer

#i #iraq #love #money #restore

The French are endowed with bigger limbs; those of the Spaniards are stronger; they have a very slim waist. The French fight with more ferocity than advise. The Spaniards the opposite. ↗

— Michael Servetus

#bigger #endowed #ferocity #fight #french

There was a French singer, Francoise Hardy - I used to look at her pictures and try to dress like her. ↗

— Carly Simon

#french #hardy #her #i #like

Who can doubt that between the English and the French, between the Scotch and the Irish, there are differences of character which have profoundly affected and still affect the course of history? ↗

— Goldwin Smith

#affected #between #character #course #differences

The genius of the French language, descended from its single Latin stock, has triumphed most in the contrary direction - in simplicity, in unity, in clarity, and in restraint. ↗

— Lytton Strachey

#contrary #descended #direction #french #french language

When the French nation gradually came into existence among the ruins of the Roman civilization in Gaul, a new language was at the same time slowly evolved. ↗

— Lytton Strachey

#came #civilization #evolved #existence #french

With a very few exceptions, every word in the French vocabulary comes straight from the Latin. ↗

— Lytton Strachey

#every #exceptions #few #french #latin