Laudator Temporis Acti

The Opinions of Anatole France. Recorded by Paul Gsell. Translated from the French by Ernest A. Boyd (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1922), pp. 76-77:

Sceptic! Sceptic! It is true, they will still call me a sceptic. And for them that is the worst insult. But for me it is the finest praise. A Sceptic! Why, that is what all the masters of French thought have been. Rabelais, Montaigne, Molière, Voltaire, Renan — Sceptics. All the loftiest minds of our race were sceptics, all those whom I tremblingly venerate, and whose most humble pupil I am.

Sceptique! Sceptique! En effet, ils in'appelleront encore sceptique. Et pour eux, c'est la pire injure. Mais pour moi, c'est la plus belle des louanges. Sceptique! Mais tous les maîtres de la pensée française l'ont été. Sceptiques, Rabelais, Montaigne, Molière, Voltaire, Renan... Sceptiques tous les plus hauts esprits de notre race, tous ceux que je vénère en tremblant et dont je ne suis que le très humble écolier.