Top 178 Quotes & Sayings by Pierre Corneille - Page 2
Explore popular quotes and sayings by a French dramatist Pierre Corneille.
Last updated on September 19, 2024.
It is a crime against the State to be powerful enough to commit one.
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.
After having won a scepter, few are so generous as to disdain the pleasures of ruling.
I agree to, or rather aspire to, my doom.
Each instant of life is a step toward death.
He who can live in infamy is unworthy of life.
One half of my life has put the other half in the grave.
Oh, how sweet it is to pity the fate of an enemy who can no longer threaten us!
He who allows me to rule is in fact my master.
I can be forced to live without happiness, but I will never consent to live without honor.
In the service of Caesar, everything is legitimate.
In recounting our woes, we often soothe them.
I would not like a king who could obey.
As great as kings may be, they are what we are: they can err like other men.
My reason, it's true, controls my feelings, but whatever its authority, it doesn't rule them so much as tyrannize them.
One is often guilty by being too just.
The subject of a good tragedy must not be realistic.
The greater the risk, the sweeter the fruit.
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.
A liar is full of oaths.
Omnipotence is bought with ceaseless fear.
Whoever can do as he pleases, commands when he entreats.
Patience and time conquer all things.
The fire which seems extinguished often slumbers beneath the ashes.
All evils are equal when they are extreme.
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.
Ambition becomes displeasing when it is once satiated; there is a reaction; and as our spirit, till our last sigh, is always aiming toward some object, it falls back on itself, having nothing else on which to rest; and having reached the summit, it longs to descend.
Every brave man is a man of his word; to such base vices he cannot stoop, and shuns more than death the shame of lying.
He who allows himself to be insulted deserves to be so; and insolence, if unpunished, increases!
[Lat., Qui se laisse outrager, merite qu'on l'outrage
Et l'audace impunie enfle trop un courage.]
Have others fear you, and I will have no fear.
For souls nobly born, valor doesn't await the passing of years
By speaking of our misfortunes we often relieve them.
[Fr., A raconter ses maux souvent on les soulage.]
He who despises life is his life's master.
He who has resolved to conquer or die is seldom conquered; such noble despair perishes with difficulty.
It matters more how one gives than what one gives
Let us attend to the present, and as to the future we shall know how to manage when the occasion arrives.
He who fears not death fears not a threat.
A monarch must sometimes rule even himself: he who wants everything must risk very little.
I am young, it is true; but in noble souls valor does not wait for years.
Obedience is a hard profession.
If you betray me, can I take a better revenge than to love the person you hate?
The worst of all States is the democratic State.
As our self-interests differ, so do our feelings.
All great virtues become great men.
One doesn't wish to see those to whom one owes so much.
What destroys one man preserves another.
Who is all-powerful should fear everything.
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
To he who avenges a father, nothing is impossible
Love lives on hope, and dies when hope is dead; It is a flame which sinks for lack of fuel.
Guess if you can, choose if you dare.
As for our gods, we have a few too many to be true.
Heaven often regulates effects by their causes, and pays the wicked what they have deserved.
Time is a great manager: it arranges things well.
Good fortune leads one to the highest glory, But to renounce it calls for equal courage.
He who allows me to rule is in fact my master
In relating our misfortunes, we often feel them lightened.
It is hard to hate what one has loved, and a half-extinguished fire is soon relit.
Your virtue raises your glory above your crime.
And the combat ceased, for want of combatants.
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