Moliere Quotes - Page 4

There is no reward so delightful, no pleasure so exquisite, as having one's work known and acclaimed by those whose applause confers honor.

According to the saying of an ancient philosopher, one should eat to live, and not live to eat

Perfect reason avoids all extremes.

Some of the most famous books are the least worth reading. Their fame was due to their having done something that needed to be doing in their day. The work is done and the virtue of the book has expired.

Each day my reason tells me so; But reason doesn't rule in love, you know.

The maturing process of becoming a writer is akin to that of a harlot. First you do it for love, then for a few friends, and finally only for money.

The less we deserve good fortune, the more we hope for it.

Esteem must be founded on preference: to hold everyone in high esteem is to esteem nothing.

The defects of human nature afford us opportunities of exercising our philosophy, the best employment of our virtues. If all men were righteous, all hearts true and frank and loyal, what use would our virtues be?

And with his arms crossed he looks pityingly down from his spiritual height on everything that anyone says.

I feed on good soup, not beautiful language.

Betrayed and wronged in everything, I’ll flee this bitter world where vice is king, And seek some spot unpeopled and apart Where I’ll be free to have an honest heart. - Molière, The Misanthrope

Malicious men may die, but malice never.

How strange it is to see with how much passion People see things only in their own fashion!

All the power is with the sex that wears the beard.

How easily a fathers tenderness is recalled, and how quickly a son's offenses vanish at the slightest word of repentance!

The world, dear Agnes, is a strange affair.

If you suppress grief too much, it can well redouble.

Solitude terrifies the soul at twenty.

The smallest errors are always the best. [Fr., Les plus courtes erreurs sont toujours les meilleures.]

Unreasonable haste is the direct road to error.

One ought to look a good deal at oneself before thinking of condemning others.

All the satires of the stage should be viewed without discomfort. They are public mirrors, where we are never to admit that we seeourselves; one admits to a fault when one is scandalized by its censure.

It is madness beyond compare To try to reform the world.

I prefer an interesting vice to a virtue that bores.