Pierre Corneillewas a French tragedian. He is generally considered one of the three great seventeenth-century French dramatists, along with Molière and Jean Racine... (wikipedia)
When there is no peril in the fight there is no glory in the triumph.
Self-love is the source of all our other loves.
We never taste a perfect joy; our happiest successes are mixed with sadness.
We never taste happiness in perfection, our most fortunate successes are mixed with sadness.
As great as kings may be, they are what we are: they can err like other men.
He who allows himself to be insulted deserves to be.
To win without risk is to triumph without glory.
A true king is neither husband nor father; he considers his throne and nothing else.
To he who avenges a father, nothing is impossible
To take revenge halfheartedly is to court disaster; either condemn or crown your hatred.
This dark brightness that falls from the stars.
It takes good memory to keep up a lie
To vanquish without peril is to triumph without glory.
Every man of courage is a man of his word.
The greater the effort, the greater the glory.
The manner of giving is worth more than the gift.
Do your duty and leave the rest to heaven.
When the patient loves his disease, how unwilling he is to allow a remedy to be applied.
Deceit is the game of petty spirits, and that is by nature a woman's quality.
Oh rage! Oh despair! Oh age, my enemy!
One ought to have a good memory when he has told a lie
One half of my life has put the other half in the grave.
Guess, if you can, and choose, if you dare.
He who plays advisor is no longer ambassador.
My reason, it's true, controls my feelings, but whatever its authority, it doesn't rule them so much as tyrannize them.
He who can live in infamy is unworthy of life
Alas, I emerge from one disaster to fall into a worse.
Oh, how sweet it is to pity the fate of an enemy who can no longer threaten us!
A Victory without danger is a triumph without glory.
I don't know how to defend myself: surprised innocence cannot imagine being under suspicion.
I can be forced to live without happiness, but I will never consent to live without honor.
One is often guilty by being too just.
Brave men are brave from the very first.
One often calms one's grief by recounting it.
True, I am young, but for souls nobly born valor doesn't await the passing of years.
An example is often a deceptive mirror, and the order of destiny, so troubling to our thoughts, is not always found written in things past
Each instant of life is a step toward death.
In recounting our woes, we often soothe them.
Master of the universe but not of myself, I am the only rebel against my absolute power.
We triumph without glory when we conquer without danger.
It is the crime not the scaffold which is the disgrace.
It matters more how one gives than what one gives
The crime and not the scaffold makes the shame.
A good memory is needed after one has lied.
Severity is allowable where gentleness has no effect.
He who does not fear death cares naught for threats.
He who is hated by all can not expect to live long.
I agree to, or rather aspire to, my doom.
Clemency is the noblest trait which can reveal a true monarch to the world.
The subject of a good tragedy must not be realistic.
He who allows me to rule is in fact my master
I would not like a king who could obey.
To die for one's country is such a worthy fate that all compete for so beautiful a death.
I have deserved neither so much honor or so much disgrace.
In the service of Caesar, everything is legitimate.
It is a crime against the State to be powerful enough to commit one.
After having won a scepter, few are so generous as to disdain the pleasures of ruling.
I see, I know, I believe, I am undeceived.
They who overcome their desires once can overcome them always.
When we conquer without danger our triumph is without glory.
To conquer without danger is to conquer without glory.
It is a flame which sinks for lack of fuel.
When the patient loves his disease, how unwilling he is tallow a remedy to be applied.
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.
Flee an enemy who knows your weakness.
Do your duty, and let the gods do the rest.
Do your duty, and leave the outcome to the Gods.
And the battle ended through lack of combatants.
A service beyond all recompense - Weighs so heavy that it almost gives offense
By speaking of our misfortunes we often relieve them.
I am master of myself, as of the Universe; I am, and I wish to be so.
He who despises life is his life's master.
Who is all-powerful should fear everything.
Guess if you can, choose if you dare.
Love is a tyrant sparing none.
Heaven absolves all crimes committed to gain a throne Once Heaven gives it to us.
All evils are equal when they are extreme.
A first impulse was never a crime.
He who fears not death fears not a threat.
Ambition displeases when it has been sated ... having reached the peak, it aspires to descend.
Just vengeance does not call for punishment.
Ambition, having reached the summit, longs to descend.
Violence is just, where kindness is vain.
The fire which seems extinguished often slumbers beneath the ashes.
Your heart is mine; there I reign. I am content.
Just as We never taste happiness in perfection, our most fortunate successes are mixed with sadness. So too we never taste sadness completely, as things could always be worse in some way and for this we can be grateful.
Ambition aspires to descend
To myself alone do I owe my fame.
My sweetest hope is to lose hope
Danger breeds best on too much confidence.
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
Those who easily forgive invite offenses.
Desire increases when fulfillment is postponed.
Treachery is noble when aimed at tyranny.
He who pardons easily invites offense.
He who forgives readily only invites offense.
Force is legitimate where gentleness avails not.
As our self-interests differ, so do our feelings.
By speaking of our misfortunes we often relieve them. [Fr., A raconter ses maux souvent on les soulage.]
A liar is always lavish of oaths. [Fr., Un menteur est toujours prodigue de serments.]