“The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread.”

French poet, journalist, and novelist

Anatole France was a French poet, journalist, and novelist, and one of the best-known literary figures of his time. He lived from 1844 to 1924 and is remembered for a career that made him, in his day, an ideal of the French man of letters. His books were widely read, and several became best-sellers. He was known for an ironic, skeptical outlook, and for prose marked by elegance and human sympathy. He was a member of the Académie Française, and in 1921 he received the Nobel Prize in Literature for his literary achievement.