Most Famous French Love Quotes

Here’s a selection of some of the best French love quotes and sayings to help you share your feelings with a loved one, build your vocabulary, add something special to a romantic evening, or even find the perfect quotation-inspired tattoo!

These come from Hugo’s Le roi s’amuse, a romantic play in verse that was published in 1832. You can read the entire play here.

At a time when women writers weren’t respected in France, Amantine Lucile Dupin chose to use “George Sand” as her pen name.

French Love Sayings

True to her free-spirited nature, she had love affairs with many of her contemporaries, including Alfred de Musset, who also has a quotation on this list.

Molière is the alias of Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, who left his respectable bourgeois life to pursue his dream of acting and writing plays.

Wise beyond his years, St-Exupéry sadly died at only 44 years old, when his plane was shot down by the Germans during a reconnaissance mission for the Free French Air Force.

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De Scudéry was a highly educated woman who ran her own salon (meetings in her home where intellectuals, artists, writers, and other interesting people met and had discussions) in 17th century Paris.

One of the greatest singers of all time, Piaf grew up in extreme poverty and, before becoming famous, sang on the streets of Paris.

Translation: Love is the emblem of eternity; it confounds all notion of time, erases all memory of a beginning, all fear of anend.

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The charming, often boldly-dressed Madame deStaël (real name: Anne Louise Germaine de Staël-Holstein) was a major social and intellectual figure during the French Revolution and First Empire (and was considered one of Napoleon’s non-military nemeses!).

Translation: I have loved to the point of madness. That which some call madness, but which to me, is the only way to love.

Breton is one of the founders of Surrealism , and this quotation comes from his famous Surrealist novel L’amour fou (Mad Love).

French Love Quotes

Rien n’est petit dans l’amour. Ceux qui attendent les grandes occasions pour prouver leur tendresse ne savent pas aimer – Laure Conan

Believe it or not, while the French have a reputation for romance, these quotes aren’t spouting from every French person’s lips every day – they’d be used for a special message to a loved one or even as a romantic inspiration to oneself.

If we have the same saying in English, it’s because some version of this idea has been around since antiquity. But, as in English, this saying is omnipresent in French.

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Whereas in English, this game involves plucking petals of a flower and alternating “He/She loves me” and “He/She loves me not” with each one, the French version actually contains a lot more options; the phrase is a shorter version of Il/Elle m’aime un peu, beaucoup, passionnément, à la folie, pas du tout (He/She loves me a little, a lot, passionately, madly, not at all.).

One of my favorite French romcoms has a title that’s a play on words of this famous phrase and the first one on this list: Un peu, beaucoup, aveuglement (A little, a lot, blindly).

You may have noticed a bit of a difference between the French love quotes on our list, and the majority of these much more common sayings and thoughts.

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To me, they show the nitty-gritty of love, the everyday struggles that often arise when you’re in a relationship or even dealing with unrequited love, or heartbreak.

This is totally in keeping with the French mentality. There are always exceptions, of course, but in general, as I’ve shared in other articles, the French attitude towards love is discretion, not bold declarations.

This is because the French generally tend to consider extremely emotional or ostentatious displays of sentiment totally false (although they do appreciate them in movies and other works of fiction).

Really Useful French Love Quotes

If a French person is in love with you, they’re probably not going to make a prom-posal or have compliments to you set out in skywriting.

That doesn’t make these quotes ring false. If anything, to me, they show the power of love. No matter how discreet or against big displays of emotion you might be, you can’t fight the epic way(s) love makes you feel in your heart.

If you don’t think one of these quotes feels right, another source for ways to express your romantic feelings is to look at websites that give French people ideas for things like romantic cards, marriage proposals, and flirty text messages.

French Quotes About Love With English Translations To Impress Your Lover

The ones on this site are a fascinating mix of plainspoken and something right out of un roman à l’eau de rose (a cheesy romance novel).

For example: Tes baisers sont comme des incendies que tu allumes au creux de moi. (Your kisses are like fires that illuminate the hollow places inside of me.)

Or, for something a bit less chaud (hot), C’est à tes côtés que je veux construire mavie, que nous avancions main dans la main. (I’d like to build my life with you by my side, to move forward hand-in-hand.)

I Love You

None of these are citations from literature or history, but they do show a more contemporary, less formal way of expressing oneself.

And of course, if you want to keep it more literary, you can also find inspiration in novels, short stories, and poetry, not to mention song lyrics.

Here, for example, is a list of the French’s 100 favorite love songs. And you can find an impressive online collection of French love poems here.

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What I like about this link in particular is that it includes poems from many different eras, not just the 19th century (the era when many of the best-known French poets wrote).

If the quotes at the start of this article didn’t quite inspire you, here are a few other suggestions for a French love quotation tattoo, from this article:

Note that if you want the “loved” to agree with a female subject, you have to add an extra “e” to aimé, like so: Pour être aimée, aime.

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This is a play on a somewhat famous anonymous quotation, Je t’aime, c’est ma plume qui te l’écrit (I love you, it’s my pen which writes it).

Alysa Salzberg is an American writer, worrier, teacher, and cookie enthusiast who has lived in Paris, France, for more than a decade. She has taught English and French for more than ten years, most notably as an assistante de langue vivante for L'Education Nationale. She recently published her first novel, Hearts at Dawn, a Beauty and the Beast retelling that takes place during the 1870 Siege of Paris. You can read about her adventures here, or feel free to stop by her website.In romantic Paris, get swept away by amour. Here are some of the best romantic French love quotes dedicated to those nearest to your heart.

Tinkling laughter, a few stumbles down ancient cobblestone streets hand in hand with your French lover, with some beautiful love songs playing in the background. Is there any place more romantic than Paris in the spring?

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Add in a few French love quotes and a picnic basket by the Seine, and you are all set. (Well Paris in winter is equally lovely and the lover doesn’t have to be French, but I digress.)

Being the language of love and Paris as a backdrop, can you blame these writers for getting swept away by a current of

Add a bit of whimsy and a lot of romance, and you too will want to start quoting a few famous French sayings about love and the joy of falling head over heels. Without further ado, here are in my opinion, some of the best French proverbs and romantic sayings about love and

Beautiful French Love Quotes And Sayings

By the author of the French literary classic Petit Prince, Antoine De Saint-Exupéry wrote this wonderful quote about growing old together. A beautiful saying that is quite popular with French couples saying their “Oui’s” at their wedding.

French novelist Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin aka George Sand uttered these famous words. Known for dressing in male attire, she had many affairs including a turbulent relationship with the composer Frédéric Chopin.

The legendary Coco Chanel had a dramatic love life herself, so she knew what she was talking about when she said these words.

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The French female poet (and part-time actress) Marceline Desbordes-Valmore wrote down this lovely proverb, leaving us speechless. (I couldn’t resist!) You can read more French love poems here.

French playwright Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, who is better known as the legendary Molière, is accredited with this beautiful proverb. A beautiful quote for Valentine’s day.

Do we always want what we don’t quite have? In English, we have “absence makes the heart grow fonder”, though that is not quite the same. A toast to unrequited love by French novelist Marcel Proust.

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Philosopher Albert Camus dives into the darker side of love with this French saying. He was married a couple of times, had many affairs, and won the Nobel prize for literature, so obviously knew what he was talking about.

(Note: If you are traveling through Provence, stop by the Château de Lourmarin to see where he wrote many of his most famous musings.)

Romantic French Quotes 1. Et c’est parfois dans un regard, dans un sourire que sont cachés les mots qu’on

Beautiful French Quotes And Phrases