Quotations by:
    Anouilh, Jean


There will come a day for each of us, more or less sad, more or less distant, when we must accept the condition of being human.

Jean Anouilh (1910-1987) French dramatist
(Attributed)
 
Added on 17-Feb-12 | Last updated 17-Feb-12
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CREON: To say yes, you have to sweat and roll up your sleeves and plunge both hands into life up to the elbows. It’s easy to say no, even if it means dying.

Jean Anouilh (1910-1987) French dramatist
Antigone (1942)
 
Added on 18-Oct-10 | Last updated 18-Oct-10
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CHORUS: It is restful, tragedy, because one knows that there is no more lousy hope left. You know you’re caught, caught at last like a rat with all the world on its back. And the only thing left to do is shout — not moan, or complain, but yell out at the top of your voice whatever it was you had to say. What you’ve never said before. What perhaps you don’t even know till now.

Jean Anouilh (1910-1987) French dramatist
Antigone (1942)
 
Added on 8-Nov-10 | Last updated 8-Nov-10
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BECKET: Until the day of his death, no man can be sure of his courage.

Jean Anouilh (1910-1987) French dramatist
Becket or The Honor of God [Becket ou l’honneur de Dieu], Act 1 (1959)
 
Added on 15-Nov-10 | Last updated 13-Apr-20
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BECKET: Saintliness is also a temptation.

Jean Anouilh (1910-1987) French dramatist
Becket or The Honor of God [Becket ou l’honneur de Dieu], Act 3 (1959)
 
Added on 22-Nov-10 | Last updated 13-Apr-20
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BECKET: Beauty is one of the few things which don’t shake one’s faith in God.

[Le beauté est une des rares choses qui ne font pas douter de Dieu.]

Jean Anouilh (1910-1987) French dramatist
Becket, Act 1 (1959) [tr. Hill (1960)]
    (Source)

The official English translation approved by Anouilh. (Source (French)). Alternate translations:

Beauty is one of the very few things that don't shake one's faith in God.
[tr. Raphael and Raphael (2004)]

Beauty is one of the rare things that do not lead to doubt of God.
[Frequently found translation, but source unknown]

 
Added on 21-Feb-22 | Last updated 21-Feb-22
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KING : Am I the strongest or am I not?
BECKET: You are, today. But one must never drive one’s enemy to despair. It makes him strong. Gentleness is better politics. It saps virility. A good occupational force must never crush, it must corrupt.

Jean Anouilh (1910-1987) French dramatist
Becket, Act 2 (1959) [tr. Hill (1961)
    (Source)

The lines remain intact in Edward Anhalt's 1964 screenplay.
 
Added on 17-Sep-20 | Last updated 17-Sep-20
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But one cannot weep for the entire world. It is beyond human strength. One must choose.

[On ne peut pleurer pour le monde entier : C’est au-delà des forces humaines. Il faut choisir!]

Jean Anouilh (1910-1987) French dramatist
Cecile; or The School for Fathers [L’Ecole Des Peres] [The Chevalier] (1951) [tr. Klein (1956)]
    (Source)
 
Added on 25-Sep-23 | Last updated 25-Sep-23
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LE CHEVALIER: One cannot weep for the entire world, it is beyond human strength. One must choose.

Jean Anouilh (1910-1987) French dramatist
Cécile (1954)
 
Added on 25-Oct-10 | Last updated 25-Oct-10
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There will always be a lost dog somewhere that will prevent me being happy.

[Il y aura toujours un chien perdu quelque part qui m’empêchera d’être heureux.]

Jean Anouilh (1910-1987) French dramatist
La Sauvage [The Restless Heart], Act 3 [Thérèse] (1934) [tr. Pronko (1961)]
    (Source)

Alternate translation:

There will always be a stray dog somewhere in the world who'll stop me being happy.
[tr. Hill (1957)]

 
Added on 12-Sep-23 | Last updated 12-Sep-23
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When you’re forty, half of you belongs to the past — and when you’re seventy, nearly all of you —

Jean Anouilh (1910-1987) French dramatist
Léocadia [Time Remembered], Act 2, sc. 2 [Duchess] (1939) [tr. Moyes (1955)]
    (Source)
 
Added on 2-Oct-23 | Last updated 2-Oct-23
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Things are beautiful if you love them.

Jean Anouilh (1910-1987) French dramatist
Mademoiselle Colombe, Act 2, sc. 2 (1950) [tr. Kronenberger (1954)]
    (Source)
 
Added on 13-Apr-20 | Last updated 13-Apr-20
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To die is nothing. Begin by living. It’s less funny and lasts longer.

[Mourir, ce n’est rien. Commence donc par vivre. C’est moins drôle et c’est plus long.]

Jean Anouilh (1910-1987) French dramatist
Roméo et Jeannette, Act 3 (1946) [tr. (1949)]
 
Added on 18-Sep-23 | Last updated 18-Sep-23
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ARCHBISHOP: With God, what is terrible is that one never knows whether it’s not just a trick of the devil.

Jean Anouilh (1910-1987) French dramatist
The Lark [L’Alouette] (1952)
 
Added on 1-Nov-10 | Last updated 1-Nov-10
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