Moliere quotes

Things are only worth what you make them worth.

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

Love is a great master. It teaches us to be what we never were.

The true touchstone of wit is the impromptu.

Consistency is only suitable for ridicule.

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

We are easily duped by those we love.

I want people to be sincere; a man of honor shouldn't speak a single word that doesn't come straight from his heart.

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.

The more powerful the obstacle, the more glory we have in overcoming it; and the difficulties with which we are met are the maids of honor which set off virtue.

Beauty without intelligence is like a hook without bait.

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

They [zealots] would have everybody be as blind as themselves: to them, to be clear-sighted is libertinism.

Perfect good sense shuns all extremity, content to couple wisdom with sobriety.

To live without loving is not really to live.

The defects of human nature afford us opportunities of exercising our philosophy, the best employment of our virtues. If all men were righteous, all hearts true and frank and loyal, what use would our virtues be?

Solitude terrifies the soul at twenty.

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.

I have a heart to love all the world; and like Alexander I wish there were yet other worlds, so I could carry even further my amorous conquests.

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.

One easily bears moral reproof, but never mockery.

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

And with his arms crossed he looks pityingly down from his spiritual height on everything that anyone says.

If Claret is the king of natural wines, Burgundy is the queen.

Gold is the key, whatever else we try; and that sweet metal aids the conqueror in every case, in love as well as war.

To inspire love is a woman's greatest ambition, believe me. It's the one thing woman care about and there's no woman so proud that she does not rejoice at heart in her conquests.

The smallest errors are always the best. [Fr., Les plus courtes erreurs sont toujours les meilleures.]

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

A woman always has her revenge ready.

Too great haste leads us to error.

All is wholesome in the absence of excess.

Unreasonable haste is the direct road to error.

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

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

Reason is not what decides love.

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

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

Most people die from the remedy rather than from the illness.

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

I assure you, an educated fool is more foolish than an uneducated one.

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

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

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

The secret to fencing consists in two things: to give and to not receive.

We must take the good with the bad; For the good when it's good, is so very good That the bad when it's bad can't be bad!

There is no reward so delightful, no pleasure so exquisite, as having one's work known and acclaimed by those whose applause confers honor.

People spend most of their lives worrying about things that never happen.

Folk whose own behavior is most ridiculous are always to the fore in slandering others.

That must be fine, for I don't understand a word.

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

Doubts are more cruel than the worst of truths. It is not only for what we do that we are held responsible, but also for what we do not do. A lover whose passion is extreme loves even the faults of the beloved

Even Rome cannot grant us a dispensation from death.

Each day my reason tells me so; But reason doesn't rule in love, you know.

Man, I can assure you, is a nasty creature.

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

How easily a fathers tenderness is recalled, and how quickly a son's offenses vanish at the slightest word of repentance!

The world, dear Agnes, is a strange affair.

unbroken happiness is a bore: it should have ups and downs.

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

You only die once, but you will be dead for a very long time.

When you model yourself on people, you should try to resemble their good sides.

People of quality know everything without ever having learned anything.

There is no rampart that will hold out against malice.

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

I prefer an interesting vice to a virtue that bores.

We should look long and carefully at ourselves before we pass judgement on others.

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

There is no secret of the heart which our actions do not disclose.

There is nothing so necessary for men as dancing.

Malicious tongues spread their poison abroad and nothing here below is proof against them.

The road is a long one from the projection of a thing to its accomplishment.

He must have killed a lot of men to have made so much money.

Music and dance are all you need.

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

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

You have but to hold forth in cap and gown, and any gibberish becomes learning, all nonsense passes for sense.

Innocence is not accustomed to blush.

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.

Perfect reason avoids all extremes.

In society one needs a flexible virtue; too much goodness can be blamable.

The genuine Amphitryon is the Amphitryon with whom we dine.

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

Great is the fortune of he who possesses a good bottle, a good book, and a good friend.

The absence of the beloved, short though it may last, always lasts too long.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

When there is enough to eat for eight, there is plenty for ten.

At least it's better to be married than to be dead.

Long is the road from conception to completion.

Virtue is the first title of nobility.

A good husband be the best sort of plaster for to cure a young woman's ailments.

Man's greatest weakness is his love for life.

Without knowledge, life is no more than the shadow of death

Human weakness is to desire to know what one does not want to know.

Betrayed and wronged in everything, I’ll flee this bitter world where vice is king, And seek some spot unpeopled and apart Where I’ll be free to have an honest heart. - Molière, The Misanthrope

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

You are my peace, my solace, my salvation.

All the power is with the sex that wears the beard.

Men often marry in hasty recklessness and repent afterward all their lives.

I feed on good soup, not beautiful language.

I prefer a pleasant vice to an annoying virtue.

Without dance, a man can do nothing.

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.

Gold makes the ugly beautiful.

How easy love makes fools of us.

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

Malicious men may die, but malice never.

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

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

There is no fate more distressing for an artist than to have to show himself off before fools, to see his work exposed to the criticism of the vulgar and ignorant.

No reason makes it right To shun accepted ways from stubborn spite; And we may better join the foolish crowd Than cling to wisdom, lonely though unbowed.

Deference and intimacy live far apart.

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

I find medicine is the best of all trades because whether you do any good or not you still. Get your money.

Hypocrisy is a fashionable vice, and all fashionable vices pass for virtue.

The art of flatterers is to take advantage of the foibles of the great, to foster their errors, and never to give advice which may annoy.

Doubts are more cruel than the worst of truths.

The only people who can be excused for letting a bad book loose on the world are the poor devils who have to write for a living.

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

The proof of true love is to be unsparing in criticism.