Moliere Quotes

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A husband is a plaster that cures all the ills of girlhood.

Without dance, a man can do nothing.

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

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

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

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

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

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

We are easily duped by those we love.

The genuine Amphitryon is the Amphitryon with whom we dine.

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

There is nothing so necessary for men as dancing.

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.

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

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.

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

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

Perfect reason avoids all extremes.

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.

Beauty without intelligence is like a hook without bait.

Unreasonable haste is the direct road to error.

One is easily fooled by that which one loves.

I suppose that in no educational institution can one become an educated person.

It may cost me twenty thousand francs; but for twenty thousand francs, I will have the right to rail against the iniquity of humanity, and to devote to it my eternal hatred.

I live on good soup, not on fine words.

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

I prefer an interesting vice to a virtue that bores.

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

Sharing with Jupiter is never a dishonor.

Reason is not what decides love.

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

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

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.

I feed on good soup, not beautiful language.

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

Then worms shall try That long preserved virginity, And your quaint honor turn to dust, And into ashes all my lust. The grave's a fine and private place But none, I think, do there embrace.

Things are only worth what you make them worth.

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.

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

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

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