Jean Anouilh

Effective action is always unjust.

— Jean Anouilh

Beauty is one of the rare things that do not lead to doubt of God.

— Jean Anouilh

Things are beautiful if you love them.

— Jean Anouilh

What you get free costs too much.

— Jean Anouilh

It takes a certain courage and a certain greatness to be truly base.

— Jean Anouilh

Until the day of his death, no man can be sure of his courage.

— Jean Anouilh

An ugly sight, a man who is afraid.

— Jean Anouilh

With God, what is terrible is that one never knows whether it's not just a trick of the devil.

— Jean Anouilh

Listen, my friend, there are two races of beings. The masses teeming and happy --common clay, if you like --eating, breeding, working, counting their pennies; people who just live; ordinary people; people you can't imagine dead. And then there are the others --the noble ones, the heroes. The ones you can quite well imagine lying shot, pale and tragic; one minute triumphant with a guard of honor, and the next being marched away between two gendarmes.

— Jean Anouilh

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

There is love of course. And then there's life, its enemy.

— Jean Anouilh

Poor little men, poor little cocks! As soon as they're old enough, they swell their plumage to be conquerors. If they only knew that it's enough to be just a little bit wounded and sad in order to obtain everything without fighting for it.

— Jean Anouilh

The only immorality is not to do what one has to do when one has to do it.

— Jean Anouilh

Nothing is irreparable in politics.

— Jean Anouilh

Propaganda is a soft weapon; hold it in your hands too long, and it will move about like a snake, and strike the other way.

— Jean Anouilh

Every man thinks God is on his side. The rich and powerful know he is.

— Jean Anouilh

Saintliness is also a temptation.

— Jean Anouilh

One cannot weep for the entire world, it is beyond human strength. One must choose.

— Jean Anouilh

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