Moliere Quotations

The trees that are slow to grow bear the best fruit.

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

The more we love our friends, the less we flatter them; it is by excusing nothing that pure love shows itself.

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

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

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.

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

People don't mind being mean; but they never want to be ridiculous.

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

I have the fault of being a little more sincere than is proper.

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

A wise man is superior to any insults which can be put upon him, and the best reply to unseemly behavior is patience and moderation.

The greater the obstacle, the more glory in overcoming it.

There are pretenders to piety as well as to courage.

Unreasonable haste is the direct road to error.

Writing is like prostitution. First you do it for love, and then for a few close friends, and then for money.

I prefer a pleasant vice to an annoying virtue.

Every good act is charity. A man's true wealth hereafter is the good that he does in this world to his fellows.

It is not only for what we do that we are held responsible, but also for what we do not do.

No matter what Aristotle and the Philosophers say, nothing is equal to tobacco; it's the passion of the well-bred, and he who lives without tobacco lives a life not worth living.

We die only once, and for such a long time.

I live on good soup, not on fine words.

Of all the noises known to man, opera is the most expensive.

The duty of comedy is to correct men by amusing them.

One should eat to live, not live to eat.

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

A learned fool is more a fool than an ignorant fool.

Ah! how annoying that the law doesn't allow a woman to change husbands just as one does shirts.

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

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

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

Grammar, which knows how to control even kings.

Oh, how fine it is to know a thing or two.

It is the public scandal that offends; to sin in secret is no sin at all.

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

All which is not prose is verse; and all which is not verse is prose.

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

There is no praise to bear the sort that you put in your pocket.

If you make yourself understood, you're always speaking well.

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

He who follows his lessons tastes a profound peace, and looks upon everybody as a bunch of manure.

I want to be distinguished from the rest; to tell the truth, a friend to all mankind is not a friend for me.

It's true Heaven forbids some pleasures, but a compromise can usually be found.

People of quality know everything without ever having learned anything.

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

To marry a fool is to be no fool.

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

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.

Don't appear so scholarly, pray. Humanize your talk, and speak to be understood.

It is a strange enterprise to make respectable people laugh.

I feed on good soup, not beautiful language.

One should examine oneself for a very long time before thinking of condemning others

Things only have the value that we give them

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.

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.

One easily bears moral reproof, but never mockery.

It may cost me twenty thousand francs; but for twenty thousand francs, I will have the right to rail against the iniquity of humanity, and to devote to it my eternal hatred.

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

Age brings about everything; but it is not the time, Madam, as we know, to be a prude at twenty.

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

[Dom Juan] believes neither in Heaven, nor the saints, nor God, nor the Werewolf.

One can be well-bred and write bad poetry

Time has nothing to do with the matter.

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.

Once you have the cap and gown all you need do is open your mouth. Whatever nonsense you talk becomes wisdom and all the rubbish good sense.

With a smile we should instruct our youth...

I will not leave you until I have seen you hanged.

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

You are my peace, my solace, my salvation.

Solitude terrifies the soul at twenty.

She is laughing up her sleeve at you.

Cover that bosom that I must not see: souls are wounded by such things.

It's an odd job, making decent people laugh.

He makes his cook his merit, and the world visits his dinners and not him.

The great ambition of women is to inspire love.

Ah, there are no longer any children!

Nearly all men die of their medicines, not of their diseases.

My fair one, let us swear an eternal friendship.

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

To find yourself jilted is a blow to your pride. Do your best to forget it and if you don't succeed, at least pretend to.

Of all human foibles love of living is the most powerful.

Its as if you think you'd never find Reason and the Sacred intertwined

All right-minded people adore it; and anyone who is able to live without it is unworthy to draw breathe

One is easily fooled by that which one loves.

Debts are nowadays like children begot with pleasure, but brought forth in pain.

Our minds need relaxation, and give way unless we mix with work a little play.

People are all alike in their promises. It is only in their deeds that they differ.

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

Outside of Paris, there is no hope for the cultured.

Gold makes the ugly beautiful.

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

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.

And knowing money is a root of evil, in Christian charity, he'd take away whatever things may hinder your salvation.

People can be induced to swallow anything, provided it is sufficiently seasoned with praise.

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.

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

I hate all men, the ones because they are mean and vicious, and the others for being complaisant with the vicious ones.

Love is often the fruit of marriage.

It is a folly second to none; to try to improve the world.

Those whose conduct gives room for talk are always the first to attack their neighbors.