Top 63 Quotes & Sayings by Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux
Explore popular quotes and sayings by a French poet Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux.
Last updated on November 21, 2024.
However big the fool, there is always a bigger fool to admire him.
The dreadful burden of having nothing to do.
The world is full of fools; and he who would not wish to see one, must not only shut himself up alone, but must also break his looking-glass.
No one who cannot limit himself has ever been able to write.
When we envy another, we make their virtue our vice.
At times truth may not seem probable.
The wisest man is generally he who thinks himself the least so.
Whate'er is well conceived is clearly said, And the words to say it flow with ease.
A fool always finds a greater fool to admire him.
Some excel in rhyme who reason foolishly.
He who cannot limit himself will never know how to write.
Nothing is really beautiful but truth, and truth alone is lovely.
Whatever we well understand we express clearly, and words flow with ease.
Virtue alone is the unerring sign of a noble soul.
Bring your work back to the workshop twenty times. Polish it continuously, and polish it again.
The wisest man is he who does not fancy that he is so at all.
Attach yourself to those who advise you rather than praise you.
Honor is like an island, rugged and without shores; we can never re-enter it once we are on the outside.
[Fr., L'honneur est comme une ile escarpee et sans bords;
On n'y peut plus rentrer des qu'on en est dehors.]
Sometimes a fool makes a good suggestion.
All men are fools, and with every effort they differ only in the degree.
Who is content with nothing possesses all things.
Whatever we conceive well we express clearly, and words flow with ease.
[Fr., Ce que l'on concoit bien s'enonce clairement,
Et les mots pour le dire arrivent aisement.]
Gold gives an appearance of beauty even to ugliness: But with poverty everything becomes frightful.
The greatest fools are oft the most satisfied.
Something of calumny always sticks.
With poverty everything becomes frightful.
Of every four words I write, I strike out three.
But satire, ever moral, ever new, Delights the reader and instructs him, too. She, if good sense refine her sterling page, Oft shakes some rooted folly of the age.
Honor is like an island, rugged and without a beach; once we have left it, we can never return.
Happy who in his verse can gently steer, From grave to light, from pleasant to severe.
Ignorance is always ready to admire itself. Procure yourself critical friends.
It is the sin which we have not committed which seems the most monstrous.
A burlesque word is often a powerful sermon.
What is conceived well is expressed clearly.
Now two punctilious envoys, Thine and Mine, Embroil the earth about a fancied line; And, dwelling much on right and much on wrong, Prove how the right is chiefly with the strong.
Hasten slowly, and without losing heart, put your work twenty times upon the anvil.
[Fr., Hatez-vous lentement; et, sans perdre courage,
Vingt fois sur le metier remettez votre ouvrage.]
That which is repeated too often becomes insipid and tedious.
Time flies and draws us with it. The moment in which I am speaking is already far from me.
Of all the animals which fly in the air, walk on the land, or swim in the sea, from Paris to Peru, from Japan to Rome, the most foolish animal in my opinion is man.
At times truth may not seem probable.
[Fr., Le vrai peut quelquefois n'etre pas vraisemblable.]
Nothing but truth is lovely, nothing fair.
Greatest fools are the most often satisfied.
Happy the poet who with ease can steer
From grave to gay, from lively to severe.
[Lat., Heureux qui, dans ses vers, sait d'une voix legere
Passer du grave au doux, du plaisant au severe.]
Often the fear on one evil leads us into a worse.
He [Moliere] pleases all the world, but cannot please himself.
Who lives content with little possesses everything.
Nature always springs to the surface and manages to show what she is. It is vain to stop or try to drive her back. She breaks through every obstacle, pushes forward, and at last makes for herself a way.
To support those of your rights authorized by Heaven, destroy everything rather than yield; that is the spirit of the Church.
Let a single complete action, in one place and one day, keep the theatre packed to the last.
Though you be sprung in direct line from Hercules, if you show a lowborn meanness, that long succession of ancestors whom you disgrace are so many witnesses against you; and this grand display of their tarnished glory but serves to make your ignominy more evident.
Of all the creatures that creep, swim, or fly, Peopling the earth, the waters, and the sky, From Rome to Iceland, Paris to Japan, I really think the greatest fool is man.
A fop sometimes gives important advice.
If your descent is from heroic sires, Show in your life a remnant of their fires.
It is in vain a daring author thinks of attaining to the heights of Parnassus if he does not feel the secret influence of heaven and if his natal star has not formed him to be a poet.
Every age has its pleasures, its style of wit, and its own ways.
A warmed-up dinner was never worth much.
Truth has not such an urgent air.
In spite of every sage whom Greece can show, Unerring wisdom never dwelt below; Folly in all of every age we see, The only difference lies in the degree.
A proud bigot, who is vain enough to think that he can deceive even God by affected zeal, and throwing the veil of holiness over vices, damns all mankind by the word of his power.
A fool always finds one still more foolish to admire him.
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