Human affairs inspire in noble hearts only two feelings-admiration or pity.
Anatole FranceRead
You become a good writer just as you become a good joiner: by planing down your sentences.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Improving your writing skills requires practice and refinement, much like any craft.
Anatole France's quote suggests that writing, like woodworking, is a skill that develops through careful attention to detail and revision. Just as a skilled joiner shapes wood through planning and sanding, a good writer polishes their sentences, removing excess and refining their words to achieve clarity and impact.
Themes
WritingPracticeSkillRevisionCraft
In practice
Example use cases
In a workshop on writing, this quote can inspire participants to embrace the editing process.
More from Anatole France
All quotes βAwaken people's curiosity. It is enough to open minds, do not overload them. Put there just a spark.
Anatole FranceRead
In its majestic equality, the law forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges, beg in the streets and steal loaves of bread.
Anatole FranceRead
Justice is the means by which established injustices are sanctioned
Anatole FranceRead
There is a certain impertinence in allowing oneself to be burned for an opinion.
Anatole FranceRead
Lovers who love truly do not write down their happiness.
Anatole FranceRead
Similar quotes
Be convinced that, if man were able to reach the end without preparatory studies, such studies would not be preparatory but tiresome and utterly superfluous.
MaimonidesRead
School presents daily exercises in dis-association. It forces unwelcome associations on most of its prisoners. It sets petty, meaningless competitions in motion on a daily basis, pitting potential associates against one another in contests for praise and other worthless prizes.
John Taylor GattoRead
Every book you pick up has its own lesson or lessons, and quite often the bad books have more to teach than the good ones.
Stephen KingRead
Write regularly, day in and day out, at whatever times of day you find that you write best. Don't wait till you feel that you are in the mood. Write, whether you are feeling inclined to write or not.
Arnold J. ToynbeeRead
I often say that research is a way of finding out what you are going to do when you can't keep on doing what you are doing now.
Charles KetteringRead
You're never too old, too wacky, too wild, to pick up a book and read to a child.
Dr. SeussRead