Jean-Henri Fabre Quotes

The common people have no history: persecuted by the present, they cannot think of preserving the memory of the past.

History celebrates the battlefields whereon we meet our death, but scorns to speak of the plowed fields whereby we thrive. It knows the names of the king's bastards but cannot tell us the origin of wheat. This is the way of human folly.

Let us dig our furrow in the fields of the commonplace.

Seek those who find your road agreeable, your personality and mind stimulating, your philosophy acceptable, and your experience helpful. Let those who do not, seek their own kind.

All failed lovers rewrite the script, as if one sexual detail or another might have tipped the balance of pain into destiny, either tragic or miraculous. History record the names of royal bastards, but cannot tell us the origin of wheat.

Without feeling abashed by my ignorance, I confess that I am absolutely unable to say. In the absence of an appearance of learning, my answer has at least one merit, that of perfect sincerity.

Permanence of instinct must go with permanence of form...The history of the present must teach us the history of the past.

If there is one vegetable which is God-given, it is the haricot bean.

History records the names of royal bastards, but cannot tell us the origin of wheat.

We have within us, from the start, that which will distinguish us from the vulgar herd.

Let us turn elsewhere, to the wasps and bees, who unquestionably come first in the laying up of a heritage for their offspring.