Jean Racine Quotes

You feign guilt in order to justify yourself.

Crime, like virtue, has its degrees.

Vice, like virtue, Grows in small steps, and no true innocence Can ever fall at once to deepest guilt.

There may be guilt when there is too much virtue.

I have loved him too much not to hate

Felicity is in possession, happiness in anticipation.

Is a faith without action a sincere faith?

Wrinkles on the brow are the imprints of exploits.

I can hear those glances that you think are silent.

He who bridles the fury of the billows knows also to put a stop to the secret plans of the wicked. Submitting with respect to His holy will, I fear God, and have no other fear.

Les te moins sont fort chers, et n'en a pas qui veut. Witnesses are expensive and not everyone can afford them.

She wavers, she hesitates; in one word — she is a woman.

According as the man is, so must you humour him.

Can a faith that does nothing be called sincere?

Ainsi que la vertu, le crime a ses degre s. Crime, like virtue, has its degrees.

And do you count for nothing God who fights for us?

What does it matter if, by chance, a little vile blood be spilled?

Pain is unjust, and all the arguments That cannot soothe it only rouse suspicion.

I felt for my crime a just terror; I looked on my life with hate, and my passion with horror.

Great crimes come never singly; they are linked To sins that went before.

By dying I wanted to maintain my honor, and hide a flame so black from the daylight!

My death, taking the light from my eyes, gives back to the day the purity which they soiled.

When I'm carried away, isn't it clear that my heart contradicts my mouth?

The part I remember best is the beginning.

Hippolytus can feel, and feels nothing for me!

Some smaller crimes always precede the great crimes.

You who love wild passions, flee the holy austerity of my pleasures. All here breathes of God, peace and truth.

When will the veil be lifted that casts so black a night over the universe? God of Israel, lift at last the gloom: For how long will you be hidden?

If I could believe that this was said sincerely, I could put up with anything.

Often it is fatal to live too long.

Do not they bring it to pass by knowing that they know nothing at all?

Behind a veil, unseen yet present, I was the forceful soul that moved this mighty body.

Me, rule? Me, place the State under my law, when my feeble reason no longer rules even myself!

Ah, why can't I know if I love, or if I hate?

A benefit cited by way of reproach is equivalent to an injury.

Flight is lawful, when one flies from tyrants.

He who has far to ride spares his horse.

A tragedy need not have blood and death it's enough that it all be filled with that majestic sadness that is the pleasure of tragedy.

Twas easier to disarm the god of strengthThan this Hippolytus, for HerculesYielded so often to the eyes of beauty, As to make triumph cheap.― Jean Racine, Phèdre

Life is a comedy to those who think, a tragedy to those who feel.