Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux Quotes - Page 2

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• It is the sin which we have not committed which seems the most monstrous.

  Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux

  Sin, Committed, Seems

  13 Copy quote

• 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.

  Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux

  Nature, Spring, Break Through

  12 Copy quote

• Happy who in his verse can gently steer, From grave to light, from pleasant to severe.

  Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux

  Happiness, Light, Graves

  "The Art of Poetry (Canto I)". Book by Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux, 1674.

  4 Copy quote

• Time flies and draws us with it. The moment in which I am speaking is already far from me.

  Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux

  Time, Moments, Draws

  "Épitres". Book by Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux, 1701.

  14 Copy quote

• Virtue alone is the unerring sign of a noble soul.

  Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux

  Soul, Noble, Virtue

  "Satires (Satire 5)". Book by Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux, 1716.

  10 Copy quote

• 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.

  Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux

  Thinking, Vices, Veils

  6 Copy quote

• Gold gives an appearance of beauty even to ugliness: But with poverty everything becomes frightful.

  Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux

  Giving, Gold, Poverty

  "Satires (Satire 8)". Book by Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux, 1716.

  13 Copy quote

• Whatever we well understand we express clearly, and words flow with ease.

  Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux

  Understanding, Oratory, Ease

  15 Copy quote

• The wisest man is generally he who thinks himself the least so.

  Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux

  Inspirational, Wisdom, Humility

  15 Copy quote

• Let a single complete action, in one place and one day, keep the theatre packed to the last.

  Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux

  Theatre, One Day, Lasts

  5 Copy quote

• 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.

  Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux

  Long, Lines, Ancestry

  57 Copy quote

• Of every four words I write, I strike out three.

  Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux

  Writing, Editing, Three

  'Satire (2). A M. Moliére'

  12 Copy quote

• At times truth may not seem probable.
  [Fr., Le vrai peut quelquefois n'etre pas vraisemblable.]

  Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux

  Truth, May, Seems

  4 Copy quote

• 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.

  Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux

  Men, Thinking, Japan

  "Satires (satire 8)". Book by Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux, 1716.

  7 Copy quote

• Something of calumny always sticks.

  Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux

  Sticks, Calumny

  10 Copy quote

• All men are fools, and with every effort they differ only in the degree.

  Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux

  Men, Effort, Degrees

  14 Copy quote

• Some excel in rhyme who reason foolishly.

  Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux

  Reason, Rhyme

  10 Copy quote

• 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.

  Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux

  Age, Delight, Moral

  "Satires (Satire 9)". Book by Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux, 1716.

  4 Copy quote

• If your descent is from heroic sires, Show in your life a remnant of their fires.

  Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux

  Life, Fire, Ancestry

  "Satires (Satire 5)". Book by Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux, 1716.

  8 Copy quote

• Praising an honest person who doesn't deserve it, always wounds them.

  Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux

  Honest, Praise, Persons

  6 Copy quote

• What is conceived well is expressed clearly.

  Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux

  Simplicity, Wells

  9 Copy quote

• A fool always finds a greater fool to admire him.

  Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux

  Fool, Humour, Admire

  'L'Art poètique' canto 1, l. 232

  10 Copy quote

• He who cannot limit himself will never know how to write.

  Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux

  Art, Writing, Limits

  4 Copy quote

• 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.

  Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux

  Strong, Two, Dwelling

  "Satires (Satire 11)". Book by Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux, 1716.

  5 Copy quote

• The wisest man is he who does not fancy that he is so at all.

  Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux

  Wisdom, Men, Wisest Man

  7 Copy quote

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