Pierre Corneille Quotes

It takes good memory to keep up a lie

Brave men are brave from the very first.

There are secret ties, there are sympathies, by the sweet relationship of which souls that are well matched attach themselves to each other, and are affected by I know not what, which cannot be explained

Severity is allowable where gentleness has no effect.

We triumph without glory when we conquer without danger.

I agree to, or rather aspire to, my doom.

I have deserved neither so much honor or so much disgrace.

He who forgives readily only invites offense.

Your virtue raises your glory above your crime.

For souls nobly born, valor doesn't await the passing of years

A liar is full of oaths.

He who despises life is his life's master.

To he who avenges a father, nothing is impossible

My reason, it's true, controls my feelings, but whatever its authority, it doesn't rule them so much as tyrannize them.

In recounting our woes, we often soothe them.

Liberty may be of no more use Than stirring up the flame of civil wars; Then, by disorder fatal to the world, One wants no king, the other wants no equal.

The crime and not the scaffold makes the shame.

When a woman has the gift of silence she possesses a quality above the vulgar. It is a gift of Heaven seldom bestowed; without a little miracle it cannot be accomplished; and Nature suffers violence when Heaven puts a woman in the humor of observing silence.

Who is all-powerful should fear everything.

Flee an enemy who knows your weakness.

Ambition, having reached the summit, longs to descend.

I am young, it is true; but in noble souls valor does not wait for years.

Your arm is unvanquished, but not invincible.

If you betray me, can I take a better revenge than to love the person you hate?

One half of my life has put the other half in the grave.

It is an imprudence common to kings to listen to too much advice and to err in their choice.

The universe has no prince or king that it [Rome] would consider equal to its humblest citizen.

This dark brightness that falls from the stars.

The subject of a good tragedy must not be realistic.

Happiness is meant to be shared.

The manner of giving is worth more than the gift.

He on whom heaven confers a sceptre knows not the weight till he bears it.

Those who easily forgive invite offenses.

Oh, how sweet it is to pity the fate of an enemy who can no longer threaten us!

To die for one's country is such a worthy fate that all compete for so beautiful a death.

A liar is always lavish of oaths.

As for our gods, we have a few too many to be true.

He who fears not death fears not a threat.

He should be envied Who when his strength is spent lays down his life. Old age reserves a melancholy fate For noble souls before their life is done.

How sweet to die after one's enemies.

When the patient loves his disease, how unwilling he is to allow a remedy to be applied.

Treachery is noble when aimed at tyranny.

The greater the effort, the greater the glory.

Sir, what does it matter whom I serve, so long as I am right?

He who can live in infamy is unworthy of life.

In relating our misfortunes, we often feel them lightened.

One often calms one's grief by recounting it.

After having won a scepter, few are so generous as to disdain the pleasures of ruling.