Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux Quotes
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Often the fear on one evil leads us into a worse.
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That which is repeated too often becomes insipid and tedious.
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Nothing is really beautiful but truth, and truth alone is lovely.
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Whatever we well understand we express clearly, and words flow with ease.
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Some excel in rhyme who reason foolishly.
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If your descent is from heroic sires, Show in your life a remnant of their fires.
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At times truth may not seem probable. [Fr., Le vrai peut quelquefois n'etre pas vraisemblable.]
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However big the fool, there is always a bigger fool to admire him.
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When we envy another, we make their virtue our vice.
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Honor is like an island, rugged and without a beach; once we have left it, we can never return.
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Of all the animals which fly in the air, walk on the land, or swim in the sea, from Paris to Peru, from Japan to Rome, the most foolish animal in my opinion is man.
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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.
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A fool always finds one still more foolish to admire him.
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A fop sometimes gives important advice.
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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.
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At times truth may not seem probable.
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All men are fools, and with every effort they differ only in the degree.
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Ignorance is always ready to admire itself. Procure yourself critical friends.
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Let a single complete action, in one place and one day, keep the theatre packed to the last.
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Hasten slowly, and without losing heart, put your work twenty times upon the anvil. [Fr., Hatez-vous lentement; et, sans perdre courage, Vingt fois sur le metier remettez votre ouvrage.]
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A fool always finds a greater fool to admire him.
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Nothing but truth is lovely, nothing fair.
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In spite of every sage whom Greece can show, Unerring wisdom never dwelt below; Folly in all of every age we see, The only difference lies in the degree.
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Greatest fools are the most often satisfied.
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Time flies and draws us with it. The moment in which I am speaking is already far from me.
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The world is full of fools; and he who would not wish to see one, must not only shut himself up alone, but must also break his looking-glass.
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Truth has not such an urgent air.
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The wisest man is generally he who thinks himself the least so.
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It is in vain a daring author thinks of attaining to the heights of Parnassus if he does not feel the secret influence of heaven and if his natal star has not formed him to be a poet.
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Attach yourself to those who advise you rather than praise you.
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