Italians talk to women, Frenchmen to the learned, and the Spaniard talks to God.

Spanish proverbs
Added by Lucian Velea
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Lines To Our New Censor

[Mr. Oscar Wilde, having discovered that England is unworthy of him, has announced his resolve to become a naturalised Frenchman.]

And wilt thou, Oscar, from us flee,
And must we, henceforth, wholly sever?
Shall thy laborious _jeux-d'esprit_
Sadden our lives no more for ever?

And all thy future wilt thou link
With that brave land to which thou goest?
Unhappy France! we _used_ to think
She touched, at Sedan, fortune's lowest.

And you're made French as easily
As you might change the clothes you're wearing?
Fancy!--and 'tis so hard to be
A man of sense and modest bearing.

May fortitude beneath this blow
Fail not the gallant Gallic nation!

[...] Read more

poem by William Watson
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There is only one cure for gray hair. It was invented by a Frenchman. It is called the guillotine.

quote by P.G. Wodehouse
Added by Lucian Velea
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My Funny Sunny Holiday!

At first, my trip to sunny France
Was simply for some wild romance,
Away from folks at home I'd miss
While some French girl I'd soon kiss-kiss!

So off I flew upon the plane
Till almost reaching Sunny Spain,
But landing still on France's soil,
With temperatures still set to boil!

At dead of night, we all arrived,
Just thanking God, we'd all survived
And from the journey in the coach
Our half-built hotel to approach!

Our rooms sufficed to suit our needs
And I slept well from all these deeds...
When I awoke, the beach called me!
So off I went to sun and sea...

[...] Read more

poem by Denis Martindale
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If I knew of something that could serve my nation but would ruin another, I would not propose it to my prince, for I am first a man and only then a Frenchman... because I am necessarily a man, and only accidentally am I French.

quote by Charles de Secondat
Added by Lucian Velea
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Americans In Paris

Americans in Paris
rarely will embarrass
the Frenchies,
who, when they’re in Manhattan
regard as ill-begotten
our wenches,
since they don’t give French kisses
like those a Frenchman’s missus
provides.
Unlike the taxi horn
George scouted, Frenchmen scorn
as girl guides
without baton
Manhattan.

Inspired by a TV performance of “American in Paris” by George Gershwin, performed by the NY Philharmonic conducted by Alan Gilbert in a New Year’s eve concert that included five Cole Porter songs sung by Thomas Hampson, including “Why Gay Paree? ” a favorite of Hampson, who was interviewed by Alec Baldwin before the performance.

12/31/09

poem by Gershon Hepner
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In France, everyone speaks French 'cause they think it's cool. Gives 'em, gives 'em an excuse to smoke.

quote by Scott Thompson
Added by Lucian Velea
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My way of remaining French was the financing scheme I used for Quest for Fire, with Fox funds, since it started as a 100% American production. The film was not in French and yet was French in style, reflecting my personality.

quote by Jean-Jacques Annaud
Added by Lucian Velea
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I pity the French Cinema because it has no money. I pity the American Cinema because it has no ideas.

quote by Jean-Luc Godard
Added by Veronica Serbanoiu
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Ho joined the French socialist party, the first Vietnamese to be a member of a French political party.

quote by Wilfred Burchett
Added by Lucian Velea
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A New Pilgrimage: Sonnet VIII

I will sit down awhile in dalliance
With my dead life, and dream that it is young.
My earliest memories have their home in France,
The chestnut woods of Bearn and streams among,
Where first I learned to stammer the French tongue.
Fair ancient France. No railroad insolence
Had mixed her peoples then, and still men clung
Each to his ways, and viewed the world askance.
We, too, as exiles from our northern shore,
Surveyed things sparsely; and my own child's scorn
Remained, how long, a rebel to all lore
Save its lost English, nor was quite o'erborne
Till, as I swore I'd speak no French frog's word,
I swore in French, and so laid down my sword.

poem by Wilfrid Scawen Blunt
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Dear Motherland Of France

DEDICATED TO THE MEN AND WOMEN OF FRANCE

Our Motherland, dear Motherland,
The source of beauty and of Art,
Who but thy children understand
The love which permeates each heart!
We see, through rainbow-tints of tears,
Thy glory of a thousand years.
O country of the Great and Free,
We live for thee, we live for thee,
Dear Motherland of France.

O Motherland, both blithe and brave,
What magic lies in thy name-France!
Yet can thy radiant mien be grave,
And stern thy ever-smiling glance.
And when thy sons and daughters know
That enemies would lay thee low
And dim thy fame on land and sea,

[...] Read more

poem by Ella Wheeler Wilcox
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With a French sweep.

Dutch proverbs
Added by Lucian Velea
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France can never accept that it is no longer a dominating power in the world of culture. This is true both of the French right and the French left. They keep thinking that Americans are primitive cowboys or farmers who do not understand anything.

quote by Adam Michnik
Added by Lucian Velea
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French fries. I love them. Some people are chocolate and sweets people. I love French fries. That and caviar.

quote by Cameron Diaz
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It wasn't a new idea. During the war against the French we had this kind of broadcast for the French soldiers.

quote by Hanoi Hannah
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It is unthinkable for a Frenchman to arrive at middle age without having syphilis and the Cross of the Legion of Honor.

quote by Andre Gide
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France And England - Wael Moreicheh

FRANCE AND ENGLAND
FROM
GALLIC WARS TILL NOW
AND I AM FROM...PRINCE OF THE SEAS......
BRIGHTEN ENGLAND
NOT WONDER BY
ARCH OF VICTORY
OR
THE POWER OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS
FRANCE walk out like stranger tyrant
and visit ARCHIMEDS.........with standing labour classAND rich class AND middle class

FROM
MOUNTAINS NORMANDY to........all hills of sleeping battles
a days of pauli exclusion principle
AND MY LOVE FROM......imagian
LOI ARAGON POET FROM PARIS

WAEL MOREICHEH

poem by Wael Moreicheh
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Eighteenth-Nineteenth Century Verse

France is the country of poems and prose
the lovely French language tells us so.
Romantic love in classical verse
dates back to Voltaire from days long ago.

The 18th century brought poets from Paris
writing about France and the Seine,
and so many other Parisian wonders
that lie in that fertile plain.

Yes France was a country of talent
In England, Wordsworth stole the scene
whilst Coleridge, another fine English poet
wrote lyrical verse about Pastures Green.

poem by Joyce Hemsley
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We, the Basques, are a doubly chosen people. The north by the French and the south by the Spaniards.

aphorism by Hasier Agirre, translated by Dan Costinaş
Added by Dan Costinaş
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