Jean-Louis Guez de Balzac Quotes

Jean-Louis Guez de Balzac was a French author, best known for his epistolary essays, which were widely circulated and read in his day. He was one of the founding members of Académie française. Wikipedia  

✵ 31. May 1597 – 18. February 1654
Jean-Louis Guez de Balzac photo
Jean-Louis Guez de Balzac: 8 quotes0 likes

Famous Jean-Louis Guez de Balzac Quotes

“Solitude is certainly a fine thing; but there is pleasure in having someone who can answer, from time to time, that it is a fine thing.”

Jean-Louis Guez de Balzac

La solitude est certainement une belle chose, mais il y a plaisir d'avoir quelqu'un qui sache répondre, à qui on puisse dire de temps en temps, que c'est un belle chose.
Dissertations chrétiennes et morales (1665), XVIII: "Les plaisirs de la vie retirée".

“There are no children of whom we are fonder than those that are born of our brains, to whom we are father and mother in one.”

Jean-Louis Guez de Balzac

Il n'y a point d'enfants que nous aimions davantage que ceux qui naissent de notre esprit, et desquels nous sommes père et mère tout ensemble.
Socrate Chrétien, Discours VI.
Translation reported in Harbottle's Dictionary of quotations French and Italian (1904), p. 67.
Socrate Chrétien (1662)

“God is the poet, men are only the actors.”

Jean-Louis Guez de Balzac

Dieu est le poète et les hommes ne sont que les acteurs.
Socrate Chrétien, Discours VIII.
Translation reported in Harbottle's Dictionary of quotations French and Italian (1904), p. 42.
Socrate Chrétien (1662)

“A little wit and plenty of authority, that is what has almost always governed the world.”

Jean-Louis Guez de Balzac

Un peu d'esprit et beaucoup d'autorité, c'est ce qui a presque toujours gouverné le monde.
Socrate Chrétien, Discours VIII.
Translation reported in Harbottle's Dictionary of quotations French and Italian (1904), p. 230.
Socrate Chrétien (1662)

“No one is bound to be clever, but every one is under an obligation to be good.”

Jean-Louis Guez de Balzac

Il n'y a personne qui soit tenu d'être habile; mais il n'y en a point qui ne soit obligé d'être bon.
Aristippe, ou De la cour (1658), Discours VII.
Translation reported in Harbottle's Dictionary of quotations French and Italian (1904), p. 66.

“Nothing so closely approaches a grand style as turgid nonsense: the ridiculous is one of the extremes of the subtle.”

Jean-Louis Guez de Balzac

Rien n'est si voisin du haut style que le galimatias: le ridicule est une des extrémités du subtil.
Socrate Chrétien, Discours X.
Translation reported in Harbottle's Dictionary of quotations French and Italian (1904), p. 202.
Socrate Chrétien (1662)

“Public utility is often served by the injury of individuals.”

Jean-Louis Guez de Balzac

L'utilité publique se fait sou vent du dommage des particuliers.
Le Prince (1631), Chap. XVII.
Translation reported in Harbottle's Dictionary of quotations French and Italian (1904), p. 101.

“Poison cures in certain contingencies, and in those cases poison is not an evil thing.”

Jean-Louis Guez de Balzac

Le venin guerit en quelque rencontre, et, ce cas-là, le venin n'est pas mauvais.
Aristippe, ou De la cour (1658), Discours VI.
Translation reported in Harbottle's Dictionary of quotations French and Italian (1904), p. 139.

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