Nicolas Boileau Quotes

The greatest fools are oft the most satisfied.

He [Moliere] pleases all the world, but cannot please himself.

No one who cannot limit himself has ever been able to write.

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

To support those of your rights authorized by Heaven, destroy everything rather than yield; that is the spirit of the Church.

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

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

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.

Nothing but truth is lovely, nothing fair.

Whatever we conceive well we express clearly.

Hasten slowly and without losing heart put your work twenty times upon the anvil.