Moliere Quotes

All the ills of mankind, all the tragic misfortunes that fill the history books, all the political blunders, all the failures of the great leaders have arisen merely from a lack of skill at dancing.

I might, by chance, write something just as shoddy; But then I wouldn't show it to everybody.

You think you can marry for your own pleasure, friend?

Without dance, a man can do nothing.

Wives rarely fuss about their beauty To guarantee their mate's affection.

One cannot but mistrust a prospect of felicity: one must enjoy it before one can believe in it.

The genuine Amphitryon is the Amphitryon with whom we dine.

The true touchstone of wit is the impromptu.

Frenchmen have an unlimited capacity for gallantry and indulge it on every occasion.

Nothing can be fairer, or more noble, than the holy fervor of true zeal.

You are a fool in four letters, my son.

It is a fine seasoning for joy to think of those we love.

True, Heaven prohibits certain pleasures; but one can generally negotiate a compromise.

We ought always to conform to the manners of the greater number, and so behave as not to draw attention to ourselves. Excess either way shocks, and every man truly wise ought to attend to this in his dress as well as language, never to be affected in anything and follow without being in too great haste the changes of fashion.

I prefer a pleasant vice to an annoying virtue.

It is a strange enterprise to make respectable people laugh.

No matter what everybody says, ultimately these things can harm us only by the way we react to them.

If Claret is the king of natural wines, Burgundy is the queen.

Time has nothing to do with the matter.

Doubts are more cruel than the worst of truths.

No one is safe from slander. The best way is to pay no attention to it, but live in innocence and let the world talk.

Good Heavens! For more than forty years I have been speaking prose without knowing it.

We must take the good with the bad; For the good when it's good, is so very good That the bad when it's bad can't be bad!

There is no rampart that will hold out against malice.

The secret to fencing consists in two things: to give and to not receive.

A laudation in Greek is of marvellous efficacy on the title-page of a book.

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

Perfect reason flees all extremity, and leads one to be wise with sobriety.

Words and deeds are far from being one. Much that is talked about is left undone.

I always do the first line well, but I have trouble doing the others.

Oh, I may be devout, but I am human all the same.

What a terrible thing to be a great lord, yet a wicked man.

My heavens! I've been talking prose for the last forty years without knowing it.

It infuriates me to be wrong when I know I'm right.

The most effective way of attacking vice is to expose it to public ridicule. People can put up with rebukes but they cannot bear being laughed at: they are prepared to be wicked but they dislike appearing ridiculous.

Show some mercy to this chair which has stretched out its arms to you for so long; please satisfy its desire to embrace you!

There is no protection against slander.

Of all follies there is none greater than wanting to make the world a better place.

To create a public scandal is what's wicked; to sin in private is not a sin.

There's nothing quite like tobacco: it's the passion of decent folk, and whoever lives without tobacco doesn't deserve to live.

As the purpose of comedy is to correct the vices of men, I see no reason why anyone should be exempt.

If everyone were clothed with integrity, if every heart were just, frank, kindly, the other virtues would be well-nigh useless.

The absence of the beloved, short though it may last, always lasts too long.

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

Virtue is the first title of nobility.

A lover tries to stand in well with the pet dog of the house.

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

The ancients, sir, are the ancients, and we are the people of today.