France Quotes

“Finally, has any single man had a greater long-term impact on Europe? In France, faced with the chaos and confusion caused by the Revolution and the Terror, he quickly restored peace, political equilibrium and a strong economy; he established religious freedom, while the concordat, which he signed with Pope Pius VII in 1801, restored good relations between Church and state. He maintained low prices for the basic foods; and he created the Code Napoléon of 1804, which remains the basis of French civil law and that of nearly thirty other countries as well. In Europe, he left a trail of pillage and destruction; but he also spread the revolutionary ideals of liberty, equality and fraternity the length and breadth of the continent, where such concepts were new and challenging indeed.”
― John Julius Norwich, A History of France

“In 1870, the throne was offered to Prince Leopold of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen. Had the Prince rejected the offer at once, there might have been no Franco-Prussian war, and Napoleon III might have ended his days still on the throne. Alas, he accepted. France was appalled, how possibly could she accept being the sausage the middle of a German sandwich.”
― John Julius Norwich, France: A History: from Gaul to de Gaulle

“[Robespierre] He fully lived up to his nickname, the sea-green incorruptible; incorruptible he certainly was, he spent money on his wardrobe but on remarkably little else. He had no close friends, women meant nothing to him, nor did food or drink; he lived mainly on bread, fruit, and coffee. He was never heard to laugh; seldom seemed to smile. There was an extraordinary intensity about him. 'That man will go far', Mirabeau said shortly before he died, 'he believes what he says'.”
― John Julius Norwich, France: A History: from Gaul to de Gaulle

“On the 5th of October, in pouring rain, some 6,000 working women, fishwives, cleaners, marketstall holders, and prostitutes, marched on Versailles. Their ostensible reason was a rumor that at a welcome banquet given for the Flanders Regiment, newly arrived at the palace, the tricolor cockade had been trampled underfoot (...) armed with scythes, pikes, and any other weapons they could lay their hands on, they marched straight to the National Assembly, shouting their slogans and screaming for bread (...) In the early hours of the next day, the king and queen were awakened by furious shouts of, "mort à la femme Autrichienne", death to the Austrian woman.”
― John Julius Norwich, France: A History: from Gaul to de Gaulle

“Louis the 14th, as we know, liked to think of himself as the sun. The dazzling light that irradiated all around him. Like that it may have been, but there was very little warmth. Let no one imagine that life at Versailles was fun. It was, for the most part, bitterly cold, desperately uncomfortable, poisonously unhealthy, and of a tedium probably unparalleled. The most prevalent emotion was fear. Fear of the king himself, fear of his absolute power, fear of the single faultless word or gesture that might destroy one's career, or even one's life. And what was one's life anyway? The ceaseless round of empty ceremonial leading absolutely nowhere, offering the occasional mild amusement, but no real pleasure. As for happiness, it wasn't even to be thought of. Of course, there were lavish entertainments, balls, masques, operas, how else was morale to be maintained? But absentees were noted at once and the reasons for their absence the subject of endless inquiries. Social death, or worse, could easily result.”
― John Julius Norwich, France: A History: from Gaul to de Gaulle

“The recently arrived Normans were a people very different from the subjects of the Capetian kings. They had quickly shown themselves to be anything but the Viking savages that the French had originally supposed. On the contrary, they had absorbed the Latin culture, language, and religion of their hosts with astonishing speed. They had moreover demonstrated qualities not normally associated with early Medieval France, an extraordinary degree of energy and vigor, combined with a characteristic love of travel and adventure, without which they would have never of left their homes. They administered their lands with great efficiency, they showed a deep knowledge and respect for the law, and they'd already begun to build cathedrals and churches far more beautiful and more technically advanced than those of their French hosts.”
― John Julius Norwich, France: A History: from Gaul to de Gaulle

“With the Roman Empire effectively gone (...) Gaul disintegrated into a mass of small barbarian states under so-called kings, dukes, and counts. As we know however, nature abhors a vacuum, sooner or later one state becomes stronger than the rest and ultimately achieves domination. This time, it was the Salian Franks.”
― John Julius Norwich, France: A History: from Gaul to de Gaulle

“Martyrs were innumerable, among them, Saint Denis, 3rd century bishop of Paris, who, when beheaded, calmly picked up his severed head and walked several miles to the site of the abbey that bears his name while preaching a sermon on repentance. It seems a long way but, as the French regularly point out, 'c'est le premier pas qui compte', it's the first step that counts.”
― John Julius Norwich, France: A History: from Gaul to de Gaulle

“[The Gauls] were carnivores through and through and they loved fighting. Their horsemanship probably outclassed even that of the Romans and, though they lacked the more sophisticated Roman weaponry, their courage and determination combined with the sheer weight of their numbers made them formidable enemies. (...) Their ultimate defeat was probably due to the simple fact that their tribal society prevented them from achieving any degree of political unity.”
― John Julius Norwich, France: A History: from Gaul to de Gaulle

“Three Roman governments were established, for the provinces of Gallia Celtica (with the headquarters of the Governor General in Lyon), Gallia Belgica, corresponding roughly to what is now Belgium, and Aquitania in the south-west corner;”
― John Julius Norwich, A History of France

“Gaul was, to quote Caesar’s famous opening line ‘divided in three parts’,”
― John Julius Norwich, A History of France

“consistency, a virtue I have always deplored.”
― John Julius Norwich, A History of France

“unwinding all six foot five of him.”
― John Julius Norwich, A History of France