Top 249 Quotes & Sayings by Moliere

Explore popular quotes and sayings by a French playwright Moliere.

Last updated on September 17, 2024.

Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, known by his stage name Molière, was a French playwright, actor, and poet, widely regarded as one of the greatest writers in the French language and world literature. His extant works include comedies, farces, tragicomedies, comédie-ballets, and more. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed at the Comédie-Française more often than those of any other playwright today. His influence is such that the French language is often referred to as the "language of Molière".

French - Playwright | January 15, 1622 - February 17, 1673

Source: Wikipedia

People of quality know everything without ever having learned anything.

Moliere

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

Moliere

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

Moliere

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.

Moliere

Books and marriage go ill together.

Moliere

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

Moliere

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

Moliere

Grammar, which knows how to control even kings.

Moliere

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

Moliere

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

Moliere

It is a strange enterprise to make respectable people laugh.

Moliere

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

Moliere

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

Moliere

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

Moliere

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

Moliere

I prefer a pleasant vice to an annoying virtue.

Moliere

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

Moliere

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

Moliere

Reason is not what decides love.

Moliere

Solitude terrifies the soul at twenty.

Moliere

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

Moliere

One should eat to live, not live to eat.

Moliere

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

Moliere

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

Moliere

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

Moliere

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

Moliere

Unreasonable haste is the direct road to error.

Moliere

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

Moliere

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

Moliere

There are pretenders to piety as well as to courage.

Moliere

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

Moliere

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

Moliere

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

Moliere

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

Moliere

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

Moliere

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

Moliere

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

Moliere

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.

Moliere

I have the knack of easing scruples.

Moliere

Love is often the fruit of marriage.

Moliere

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

Moliere

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

Moliere

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

Moliere

To marry a fool is to be no fool.

Moliere

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

Moliere

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

Moliere

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.

Moliere

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

Moliere