"The truth is that life is delicious, horrible, charming, frightful, sweet, bitter, and that is everything"
About this Quote
The subtext is anti-moralistic. France isn’t offering a lesson about resilience or gratitude; he’s puncturing the idea that life should add up to something coherent, uplifting, or even narratable. By yoking “sweet” to “bitter” and letting both stand, he rejects the tidy plots we use to justify suffering or sanitize joy. The final clause - “and that is everything” - lands with a cool, almost fatalistic authority. It doesn’t mean “that’s all,” in a defeated sense; it means the totality is the point. No hidden ledger, no ultimate correction, no genre switch where tragedy becomes triumph.
Context matters: France wrote in the long hangover of the 19th century, when faith in progress and rational order collided with political scandal, social hypocrisy, and the tremors leading toward modern disillusionment. His intent reads like a novelist’s answer to ideology: reality isn’t a program. It’s a palate. You don’t solve it; you survive it by admitting the whole flavor.
Quote Details
| Topic | Life |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
France, Anatole. (2026, January 18). The truth is that life is delicious, horrible, charming, frightful, sweet, bitter, and that is everything. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/the-truth-is-that-life-is-delicious-horrible-11758/
Chicago Style
France, Anatole. "The truth is that life is delicious, horrible, charming, frightful, sweet, bitter, and that is everything." FixQuotes. January 18, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/the-truth-is-that-life-is-delicious-horrible-11758/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"The truth is that life is delicious, horrible, charming, frightful, sweet, bitter, and that is everything." FixQuotes, 18 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/the-truth-is-that-life-is-delicious-horrible-11758/. Accessed 10 Feb. 2026.









