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Jean Giraudoux Quotes

Hippolyte Jean Giraudoux was a French novelist, essayist, diplomat and playwright. He is considered among the most important French dramatists of the period between World War I and World War II. His work is noted for its stylistic elegance and poetic fantasy. Giraudoux's dominant theme is the relationship between man and woman—or in some cases, between man and some unattainable ideal. Wikipedia  

✵ 29. October 1882 – 31. January 1944
Jean Giraudoux photo

Works
Amphitryon 38
Jean Giraudoux
The Enchanted
The Enchanted
Jean Giraudoux
Jean Giraudoux: 14   quotes 1   like

Famous Jean Giraudoux Quotes

“I'm not afraid of death. It's the stake one puts up in order to play the game of life.”

Jean Giraudoux Amphitryon 38

Source: Amphitryon 38

“Only the mediocre are always at their best.”

Jean Giraudoux

As quoted in The Beauty Principal (1984) by Victoria Principal, p. 117
Attributed

“You're an attorney! It's your duty to lie, conceal, and distort everything, and slander everybody.”

Jean Giraudoux The Madwoman of Chaillot

Vous êtes avocat! Vous avez le devoir au contraire de recourir à toutes les ruses pour défendre vos clients. Au mensonge. A la calomnie.
The Madwoman of Chaillot, Act II http://books.google.com/books?id=BGPPV09y26AC&q=%22Vous+%C3%AAtes+avocat+Vous+avez+le+devoir+au+contraire+de+recourir+%C3%A0+toutes+les+ruses+pour+d%C3%A9fendre+vos+clients+Au+mensonge+A+la+calomnie%22&pg=PA142#v=onepage

“In wartime a man is called a hero. It doesn't make him any braver, and he runs for his life. But at least it's a hero who is running away.”

Jean Giraudoux The Trojan War Will Not Take Place

Tiger at the Gates (1935)

“A golf course is the epitome of all that is purely transitory in the universe; a space not to dwell in, but to get over as quickly as possible.”

Jean Giraudoux

The Doctor in The Enchanted: A Comedy in Three Acts, p. 6 (1950, as adapted by Maurice Valency).

Jean Giraudoux Quotes

“To win a woman in the first place one must please her, then undress her, and then somehow get her clothes back on her. Finally, so she will allow you to leave her, you've got to annoy her.”

Jean Giraudoux Amphitryon 38

Amphitryon 38 (1929)

Clothes

“When you see a woman who can go nowhere without a staff of admirers, it is not so much because they think she is beautiful, it is because she has told them they are handsome.”

Jean Giraudoux

The Man in The Apollo of Bellac: A Play in One Act, p. 12 (1954, as adapted by Maurice Valency).

Beauty , Thinking

“Everyone always dies for his country. If you have lived in it, well and wisely and actively, you die for it too.”

Jean Giraudoux The Trojan War Will Not Take Place

Tiger at the Gates (1935)

Country

“There is no better way of exercising the imagination than the study of law. No poet ever interpreted nature as freely as a lawyer interprets the truth.”

Jean Giraudoux The Trojan War Will Not Take Place

Tiger at the Gates (1935)

Truth , Law , Way , Exercises

“The flower is the poetry of reproduction. It is an example of the eternal seductiveness of life.”

Jean Giraudoux The Enchanted

The Enchanted (1933)

Life , Flowers

“The secret of success is sincerity. Once you can fake that you've got it made.”

Jean Giraudoux

As quoted in Murphy's Law Book Two : More Reasons Why Things Go Wrong (1980) by Arthur Bloch, p. 47; similar statements became a routine part of the comedic performances of George Burns.
Attributed

Secret , Success , Sincerity

“Born enemies don't fight. Nations you would say were designed to go to war against each other — by their skins, their language, their smell: always jealous of each other, always hating each other — they're not the ones who fight. You will find the real antagonists in nations fate has groomed and made ready for the same war.”

Jean Giraudoux The Trojan War Will Not Take Place

Tiger at the Gates (1935)

Hate , Fate , War , Fight

“As soon as war is declared it will be impossible to hold the poets back. Rhyme is still the most effective drum.”

Jean Giraudoux The Trojan War Will Not Take Place

Tiger at the Gates (1935)

War

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