Best 234 quotes of Moliere on MyQuotes

The general public is easy. You don't have to answer to anyone; and as long as you follow the rules of your profession, you needn't worry about the consequences. But the problem with the powerful and rich is that when they are sick, they really want their doctors to cure them.

The genuine Amphitryon is the Amphitryon with whom we dine.

The greater the obstacle, the more glory in overcoming it.

The impromptu reply is precisely the touchstone of the man of wit.

The less we deserve good fortune, the more we hope for it.

The maturing process of becoming a writer is akin to that of a harlot. First you do it for love, then for a few friends, and finally only for money.

The more powerful the obstacle, the more glory we have in overcoming it; and the difficulties with which we are met are the maids of honor which set off virtue.

The more we love our friends, the less we flatter them; it is by excusing nothing that pure love shows itself.

The most effective way of attacking vice is to expose it to public ridicule. People can put up with rebukes but they cannot bear being laughed at: they are prepared to be wicked but they dislike appearing ridiculous.

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.

The only people who can be excused for letting a bad book loose on the world are the poor devils who have to write for a living.

The proof of true love is to be unsparing in criticism.

The public scandal is what constitutes the offence: sins sinned in secret are no sins at all.

There are pretenders to piety as well as to courage.

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.

There is no praise to bear the sort that you put in your pocket.

There is no protection against slander.

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

There is no secret of the heart which our actions do not disclose.

There is something inexpressibly charming in falling in love and, surely, the whole pleasure lies in the fact that love isn't lasting.

There's a sort of decency among the dead, a remarkable discretion: you never find them making any complaint against the doctor who killed them!

There's nothing people can't contrive to praise or condemn and find justification for doing so, according to their age and their inclinations.

There's nothing quite like tobacco: it's the passion of decent folk, and whoever lives without tobacco doesn't deserve to live.

The road is a long one from the projection of a thing to its accomplishment.

The road is long fro the project to its completion.

The scandal of the world is what makes the offence; it is not sinful to sin in silence.

The secret to fencing consists in two things: to give and to not receive.

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

The world, dear Agnes, is a strange affair.

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

Those whose conduct gives room for talk are always the first to attack their neighbors.

Tobacco is the passion of honest men and he who lives without tobacco is not worthy of living.

To create a public scandal is what's wicked; to sin in private is not a sin.

To find yourself jilted is a blow to your pride. Do your best to forget it and if you don't succeed, at least pretend to.

To live without loving is not really to live.

True, Heaven prohibits certain pleasures; but one can generally negotiate a compromise.

Two wives? That exceeds the custom.

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

Unreasonable haste is the direct road to error.

Virtue is the first title of nobility.

We always speak well when we manage to be understood.

We are all mortals, and each is for himself.

We are easily duped by those we love.

We die only once, and for such a long time.

We live under a prince who is an enemy to fraud, a prince whose eyes penetrate into the heart, and whom all the art of impostors can't deceive.

We ought always to conform to the manners of the greater number, and so behave as not to draw attention to ourselves. Excess either way shocks, and every man truly wise ought to attend to this in his dress as well as language, never to be affected in anything and follow without being in too great haste the changes of fashion.

We should look long and carefully at ourselves before we pass judgement on others.

What a terrible thing to be a great lord, yet a wicked man.

What! Would you make no distinction between hypocrisy and devotion? Would you give them the same names, and respect the mask as you do the face? Would you equate artifice and sincerity? Confound appearance with truth? Regard the phantom as the very person? Value counterfeit as cash?

When there is enough to eat for eight, there is plenty for ten.