Best 15 quotes of Pierre-augustin Caron De Beaumarchais on MyQuotes

Pierre-augustin Caron De Beaumarchais

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    Pierre-augustin Caron De Beaumarchais

    BÉGEARSS [very conceited]. My dear, there’s nothing to it. To start with, there are just two things that make the world go round: morality and politics. Morality, a very footling thing, means being fair and honest. It is, so they say, the basis of a number of rather boring virtues.[...] Politics is the art of making things happen, of leading people and events by the nose: it’s child’s play. Its purpose is self-interest, its method intrigue. Always economical with the truth, it has boundless, dazzling possibilities which stand like a beacon and draw you on. As deep as Etna, it smoulders and rumbles for a long time before finally erupting into the light of day. By then nothing can stop it. It calls for superior talents and is threatened by only one thing: honest principles. [He laughs] That’s the key to all the deals that are ever made!

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    Pierre-augustin Caron De Beaumarchais

    COUNT. Best grin and bear it. What can't be cured must be endured.

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    Pierre-augustin Caron De Beaumarchais

    COUNT. Money? Who for? FIGARO. Money, for God’s sake, and lots of it. Money makes the plots go round.

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    Pierre-augustin Caron De Beaumarchais

    COUNT. The fact is, when you start losing your temper, even the most tightly controlled imagination will run wild, just as it does in dreams.

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    Pierre-augustin Caron De Beaumarchais

    COUNT. What’s to stop you taking her with you to London? FIGARO. A man who was married and had to be away so much? I’d never hear the end of it. COUNT. But with your qualities and brains you could climb the ladder and end up with an important government post one of these days. FIGARO. Brains? Climb the ladder? Your Lordship must think I’m stupid. Second-rate and grovelling, that’s the thing to be, and then the world’s your oyster. COUNT. All you’d have to do is take a few lessons in politics from me. FIGARO. I know what politics is. COUNT. Like you know the key to the English language? FIGARO. Not that it’s anything to boast about. It means pretending you don’t know what you do know and knowing what you don’t, listening to what you don’t understand and not hearing what you do, and especially, claiming you can do more than you have the ability to deliver. More often that not, it means making a great secret of the fact that there are no secrets; locking yourself in your inner sanctum where you sharpen pens and give the impression of being profound and wise, whereas you are, as they say, hollow and shallow; playing a role well or badly; sending spies everywhere and rewarding the traitors; tampering with seals, intercepting letters, and trying to dignify your sordid means by stressing your glorious ends. That’s all there is to politics, and you can have me shot if it’s not. COUNT. But what you’ve defined is intrigue. FIGARO. Call it politics, intrigue, whatever you want. But since to me the two things are as alike as peas in a pod, I say good luck to whoever has anything to do with either. ‘Truly, I love my sweetheart more’, as old King Henry’s song goes.

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    Pierre-augustin Caron De Beaumarchais

    FIGARO Usage, Mr Clerk, is often another name for abusage. Every client with a rudimentary education always has a better grasp of his own case than some floundering lawyer who loves the sound of his own voice, knows everything except the facts, and is no more concerned about ruining his client than about boring the court and putting their worships to sleep. And afterwards he is as pleased with himself as if he’d personally written the oration Pro Murena, Cicero’s finest.

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    Pierre-augustin Caron De Beaumarchais

    FIGARO. I’d say that the nonsense that finds its way into print only matters to the people who would like to ban it; that without the freedom to criticize, praise is meaningless

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    Pierre-augustin Caron De Beaumarchais

    FIGARO. I was poor and people looked down on me. I showed some brains and people hated me. Now, with a pretty wife and money… BARTHOLO [laughing]. People will rush to be your friend. FIGARO. They will? BARTHOLO. I know them.

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    Pierre-augustin Caron De Beaumarchais

    FIGARO. Scared? Nonsense! That’s no way to think, Madame. If you give in to the fear of consequences, you’re already living with the consequences of fear.

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    Pierre-augustin Caron De Beaumarchais

    FIGARO. The guiltiest have the hardest hearts. ’Twas ever thus.

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    Pierre-augustin Caron De Beaumarchais

    It's your world, but I make my way in it. At fifteen, no, I couldn't stand up to you. The age of illusions, when we know nothing, we hope for everything; we're wandering in a mist ... And the half of the world that's never had any use for us, suddenly is besieging us. You need us, you adore us, you're suffering for us. You want everything--except to know what we think. You look deep in our eyes--and put your hand up our dress. You call us, "Pretty thing." That confuses us. The most beautiful woman, the highest ranked, lives half dazzled by constant attention, half stifled by obvious contempt. We think all we're good for is pleasing you--till one day, long acquaintance with you dispels the last mist. In a clear light, we suddenly see you as you are--and generally we start preferring ourselves. At thirty, I could finally say no--or really say yes. That's when you begin backing away from us. Now I'm full-grown. I pursue my happiness the same as any man.

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    Pierre-augustin Caron De Beaumarchais

    Nowadays what isn't worth saying is sung. (Aujourd'hui ce qui ne vaut pas la peine d'être dit, on le chante.)

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    Pierre-augustin Caron De Beaumarchais

    OLD YOUTHFUL [sneezing]. But sir, it’s not fair. Where’s the justice… BARTHOLO. Justice! Ignorant clods like you can go on and on about justice. But I’m your master and that means I’m always right! OLD YOUTHFUL [sneezing]. But if a thing is true… BARTHOLO. If something’s true! If I don’t want a thing to be true, it isn’t true by my say-so. If you let any Tom, Dick, or Harry be right, you’d soon see what’s to become of authority and discipline!

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    Pierre-augustin Caron De Beaumarchais

    Only one thing to it: a strong stomach. The guts to gladhand a man you're going to stab in the back; pledge allegiance to principles you stomp on every day; righteously denounce some despot in the press and sell him arms under the table. The talent to whip up the voters' worst passions while you seem to call on their highest instincts, and the sense to stay wrapped in the flag. That's politics: I'll take the simple life.

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    Pierre-augustin Caron De Beaumarchais

    ROSINE. What gives you the right? BARTHOLO. The oldest right in the world: the right of the strong.