Hoyt & Roberts, comps. Hoyt’s New Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations. 1922.
France
La France est une monarchie absolue, tempérée par des chansons.
France is an absolute monarchy, tempered by ballads.
Quoted by Chamfort.
The Frenchman, easy, debonair, and brisk,
Give him his lass, his fiddle, and his frisk,
Is always happy, reign whoever may,
And laughs the sense of mis’ry far away.
Cowper—Table Talk. L. 237.
I hate the French because they are all slaves and wear wooden shoes.
Goldsmith—Essays. 24. (Ed. 1765). Appeared in the British Magazine, June, 1760. Also in Essay on the History of a Disabled Soldier. Dove—English Classics.
Gay, sprightly, land of mirth and social ease
Pleased with thyself, whom all the world can please.
Goldsmith—The Traveller. L. 241. (Of France.)
Adieu, plaisant pays de France!
O, ma patrie
La plus cherie,
Qui a nourrie ma jeune enfance!
Adieu, France—adieu, mes beaux jours.
Adieu, delightful land of France! O my country so dear, which nourished my infancy! Adieu France—adieu my beautiful days!
Lines attributed to Mary Queen of Scots, but a forgery of De Querlon.
Yet, who can help loving the land that has taught us
Six hundred and eighty-five ways to dress eggs?
Moore—Fudge Family. 8.
Have the French for friends, but not for neighbors.
Emperor Nicephorus (803) while treating with ambassadors of Charlemagne.
On connoit en France 685 manières differentes d’accommoder les œufs.
One knows in France 685 different ways of preparing eggs.
De la Reynière.
Ye sons of France, awake to glory!
Hark! Hark! what myriads bid you rise!
Your children, wives, and grandsires hoary,
Behold their tears and hear their cries!
Rouget de Lisle—The Marseilles Hymn. (1792).
Une natione de singes à larynx de parroquets.
A nation of monkeys with the throat of parrots.
Siéyes—Note to Mirabeau. (Of France.)