1.    Choose a short quotation. Short and pithy is usually more powerful and more interesting.
2.    Look up all the major words. Even if you think you already know. Especially if they look like English words.
3.    Understand how the grammar works, what makes the thing tick. Ask yourself questions about it: what's the subject, direct
       object, indirect object, what's this or that thing?
4.    Translate the quotation into English, first literally, and then into real English. Say the idea a few different ways, to be sure
        you understand it.
5.    Find French synonyms for the French words. Double-check them in a French>English dictionary to be sure that they mean
        what you think they do.
6.    Paraphrase the quotation. Try to say the same idea in as many different, but simple, ways as you can in French. Think of this
        idea as a lump of clay that will fit comfortably in the palm of your hand. You can stretch it out or smash it flat, twist it around
        or give it wings. No matter what different features and shapes you give it, it's still the same lump of clay. This is the gist of
        paraphrasing: you're giving various expressions to the same content.  The key here is not to translate the words. First, reduce
        the idea to its simplest possible form, and try to say that.  Then think of variations of that very simple idea.  Use substitution of
        synonyms as one of your primary tactics in paraphrasing.

For example:

Un héros est celui qui conquiert ses passions.

conquérir : apprivoiser, dominer, maîtriser, subjuguer, surmonter, triompher sur, vaincre.

passions : amour, appétit, ardeur, ambition, attachement, avidité, béguin, caprice, coeur, désir, élan, émotions, emportement, engouement, ensorcellement, enthousiasme, envoûtement, exaltation, excitation, fanatisme, feu, fièvre, flamme, folie, frénésie, fureur, furie, habitude, inclination, intérêt, ivresse, manie, penchant, prédisposition, préférence, préjugé, rage, tentation, zèle.

Note how these synonyms open to your mind new meanings of the quotation. All of a sudden, its not just passions in the sense of the "favorite things, hobbies, pastimes" that is meant, but very strong emotions in general to which the average person is enslaved, but which the hero overcomes. Or maybe it's appétits [appetites], the lust for carnal pleasure. Or maybe it's attachements, attachments to worldly things. Or convoitise [covetousness]. Or maybe it is sorcellerie, or envoûtement, the sorcery of préjugés [prejudice] which enslaves him, or the quagmire of fanatisme [fanaticism]. Or maybe it's the bête noire of habit: habitude, that enemy of happiness in all of us, that the real hero overcomes. All of a sudden, the quotation is much bigger and deeper, and we see what the French word passions really means, something much huger than we thought, and we have a new respect for this hero, who wages an inner battle--harder than the outer battle--for the control of his ego and the perfection of his soul.

Note also how False Friends, like intérêt, can be tricky. Intérêt is not always like English interest. It has a quality of calculating greed, scheming to acquire, planned covetousness. In French when one says of another person, Il est intéressé, it means:  "He has ulterior motives."

(Also, note how a French word like zèle [fem] brings out the English word that you never would have thought of.)
 
 So, the distilled idea is :   The hardest thing to master is one's own emotions.

Un héros n'est pas celui qui se précipite dans une belle mort, mais celui qui se compose une belle vie.

se précipiter : bondir, courir, foncer, s'abîmer, s'élancer, s'enfoncer, s'engouffrer, sauter, se dépêcher, se hâter, se jeter, se lancer, se plonger, voler.

mort: fin, tombe, tombeau, disparition, etc.

composer : arranger, assembler, bâtir, construire, créer, façonner, faire, forger, former, imaginer, inventer, organiser, sculpter, dessiner.

See the new fields of consciousness that open up as soon as you change the synonym. Pulling a green lego off to add a red one in its place gives the whole thing a slightly different 'feel'. Here we have synonyms of the French verb composer which might be building out of wood: charpenter; out of stone: ciseler, sculpter; out of metal: façonner, forger; out of artistique media like pencil: dessiner; physical building: bâtir, construire, édifier; Or logical and intellectual building, like imaginer, inventer concevoir, organiser, etc.

Now, we would naturally figure that we had the adjective belle [masculine beau], of une belle mort and une belle vie covered, since we immediately think of beautiful, but is beautiful the only or best word? And in this quotation, is the belle of une belle mort and the belle of une belle vie, the same belle? Should it mean the same thing in different contexts? Consider these synonyms for this common word beau:

admirable, adorable, bien proportionné, bien tourné, bon, brave, brillant, distingué, éclatant, élégant, éminent, exquis, fameux, fantastique, favorable, formidable, glorieux, gracieux, grand, grandiose, intéressant, magnifique, parfait, remarquable, sans pareil, sublime, superbe, supérieur.

The distilled idea of the quotation is:   It's harder to live a good life than to die an impressive death.
Or...  A hero is somebody who knows how to live, not somebody who knows how to die.

You might arrive at a paraphrase of our original quotation like this:

Un héros n'est pas celui qui se jète dans une mort impressionnante et dramatique, mais celui qui conçoit et qui construit une vie raisonnée, méditée, et complète.

This is how the legos game works: by substituting different pieces in the model, you come to understand how the model works and you begin to see the nuances in how it changes with the substitutions. This is how you acquired English, though unconsciously.

Substitute in our paraphrase various synonyms of belle:

Un héros n'est pas celui qui se jète dans une mort impressionnante et dramatique, mais celui qui conçoit et qui construit une vie ____________________.

harmonieuse

brillante

radieuse

remarquable

sublime

etc.
 

Now, back to the lump of clay. Another shape of this idea is much more simple:

Il est plus difficile de vivre que de mourir.

Il est plus difficile de vivre que d'être un héros.

Vivre est plus difficile que mourir.

Or try this shape:

Un héros n'est pas quelqu'un qui a le courage de mourir; c'est quelqu'un qui a le courage de vivre.

By taking a small piece, and working with it closely, you see the relations that make it work. By substituting pieces, you come to acquire the structure and synthesize the grammar for yourself. Start with small pieces and work up.