Molière Quotes

“It is not only for what we do that we are held responsible, but also for what we do not do.”

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

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

Plus on aime quelqu'un, moins il faut qu'on le flatte:
À rien pardonner le pur amour éclate.
Act II, sc. iv
Le Misanthrope (1666)

“Writing is like prostitution. First you do it for love, and then for a few close friends, and then for money.”

Molière Quotes about love

“Each day my reason tells me so; But reason doesn't rule in love, you know.”

“Ah, it's a lovely thing to know a thing or two.”

Source: The Misanthrope

“Betrayed and wronged in everything,
I’ll flee this bitter world where vice is king,
And seek some spot unpeopled and apart
Where I’ll be free to have an honest heart.”

Ah, la belle chose que de savoir quelque chose. Act II, sc. iv. http://books.google.com/books?id=GxlAFXHk4NcC&q=%22ah+la+belle+chose+que+de+savoir+quelque+chose%22&pg=PA39#v=onepage Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme (1670)

Molière Quotes about the world

“The world, dear Agnes, is a strange affair.”

Source: The Misanthrope

“I will maintain it before the whole world.”

Le monde, chère Agnès, est une étrange chose.
L'École des Femmes (1662), Act II, sc. v

“The world will not reform for all your meddling.”

Je le soutiendrai devant tout le monde.
Act IV, sc. iii
Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme (1670)

“He makes his cook his merit,
And the world visits his dinners and not him.”

Et c’est une folie, à nulle autre, seconde,
De vouloir se mêler de corriger le monde.
As published in Le Misanthrope, Molière, tr. Curtis Hidden Page, G.P. Putnam’s Sons (1913), p. 12
Variant translation: Of all follies there is none greater than wanting to make the world a better place.
As contained in The Columbia Dictionary of Quotations, ed. Robert Andrews, Columbia University Press (1993), p.772 : ISBN 0231071949
Act I, sc. 1, lines 155-156 (Philinte)
Le Misanthrope (1666)

“Life is a tragedy to those who feel and a comedy to those who think.”

Que de son cuisinier il s'est fait un mérite,
Et que c'est à sa table à qui l'on rend visite.
Act II, sc. iv
Le Misanthrope (1666)

Molière: Trending quotes

“Beauty without intelligence is like a hook without bait.”

“My lord Jupiter knows how to sugarcoat the pill.”

Source: Tartuffe

“A learned fool is more foolish than an ignorant one.”

Le Seigneur Jupiter sait dorer la pilule.
Act III, sc. x
Amphitryon (1666)

Molière Quotes

Molière Les Femmes Savantes

Un sot savant est sot plus qu'un sot ignorant.
Act IV, sc. iii
Les Femmes Savantes (1672)

“Man, I can assure you, is a nasty creature.”

“All the ills of mankind, all the tragic misfortunes that fill the history books, all the political blunders, all the failures of the great leaders have arisen merely from a lack of skill at dancing.”

“It is not only what we do, but also what we do not do, for which we are accountable.”

“It infuriates me to be wrong when I know I'm right.”

“My hate is general, I detest all men;
Some because they are wicked and do evil,
Others because they tolerate the wicked,
Refusing them the active vigorous scorn
Which vice should stimulate in virtuous minds.”

“We die only once, and for such a long time!”

Source: The Misanthrope

Molière Lovers' quarrels

On ne meurt qu'une fois; et c'est pour si longtemps!
Le Dépit Amoureux (1656), Act V, sc. iii

“Hypocrisy is a fashionable vice, and all fashionable vices pass for virtue.”

“I have the defect of being more
sincere than persons wish.”

“One ought to examine himself for a very long time before thinking of condemning others.”

Source: The Misanthrope

“One must eat to live, and not live to eat.”

“Without knowledge, life is no more than the shadow of death”

Il faut manger pour vivre, et non pas vivre pour manger.
L'Avare (1668), Act III, sc. i.
Firstly, an inaccurate sourcing: in Act III, yes—but in Scene I, no: rather, in Scene V—HARPAGON, VALÈRE, MASTER JACQUES (see, e.g., the Project Gutenberg HTML version of the English translation: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/6923/6923-h/6923-h.htm). Secondly, a misattribution made clear by the Molière text—the character in the play, VAL, obviously points out that the quote refers to a "saying of one of the ancients" (and the quote is precisely written in quotation marks as well), in the full line of dialogue below:
Know, Master Jacques, you and people like you, that a table overloaded with eatables is a real cut-throat; that, to be the true friends of those we invite, frugality should reign throughout the repast we give, and that according to the saying of one of the ancients, "We must eat to live, and not live to eat."
The "ancients" to which VAL/Molière refers is Cicero, Diogenes Laertius, and the oldest known attribution, Socrates (whom Laertius explicitly attributes—and Cicero presumably invokes). Various books of quotations document this—e.g., Elizabeth Knowles' 2006 The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (http://books.google.com/books?id=r2KIvsLi-2kC&dq=%22one+must+eat+to+live+not+live+to+eat%22&source=gbs_navlinks_s) and Jennifer Speake's 1982 A Dictionary of Proverbs (http://books.google.com/books?id=-IpkOkM3IfEC&dq=%22one+must+eat+to+live+not+live+to+eat%22&source=gbs_navlinks_s): the former lists the quote as "a proverbial saying, late 14th century, distinguishing between necessity and indulgence; Diogenes Laertius says of Socrates, 'he said that other men live to eat, but eats to live.' A similar idea is found in the Latin of Cicero, 'one must eat to live, not live to eat'"; the latter, reiterates this. Moreover, in William Shepard Walsh's 1909 Handy-book of Literary Curiosities, he adds that "According to Plutarch, what Socrates said was, 'Bad men live that they may eat and drink, whereas good men eat and drink that they may live.'" He also adds that Atheneus quotes similarly to Laertius, as well as explores other later variations (http://books.google.com/books?id=hrJkAAAAMAAJ&source=gbs_navlinks_s).
Misattributed

“You are my peace, my solace, my salvation.”

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

Source: Tartuffe

“I prefer an accommodating vice
To an obstinate virtue.”

“There is nothing I detest so much as the contortions of these great time-and-lip servers, these affable dispensers of meaningless embraces, these obliging utterers of empty words, who view every one in civilities”

J'aime mieux un vice commode,
Qu'une fatigante vertu.
Act I, sc. iv
Amphitryon (1666)

“Malicious men may die, but malice never.”

Source: The Misanthrope

“You may plainly perceive the traitor through his mask; he is well-known everywhere in his true colors; his rolling eyes and his honeyed tones impose only on those who do not know him.”

Source: Tartuffe

“There is no rampart that will hold out against malice.”

Source: The Misanthrope

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

Act I, sc. i
Tartuffe (1664)

“You are a fool in three letters, my son.”

Le scandale du monde est ce qui fait l'offense,
Et ce n'est pas pécher que pécher en silence.
Act IV, sc. v
Tartuffe (1664)

“He's a wonderful talker, who has the art
Of telling you nothing in a great harangue.”

Vous êtes un sot en trois lettres, mon fils.
Act I, sc. i
Tartuffe (1664)

“My fair one, let us swear
An eternal friendship.”

C'est un parleur étrange, et qui trouve toujours
L'art de ne vous rien dire avec de grands discours.
Act II, sc. iv
Le Misanthrope (1666)

“She is laughing up her sleeve at you, my brother.”

Act IV, sc. i
Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme (1670)

“Grammar, which knows how to control even kings.”

Variant: She is laughing in your face, my brother.
Source: Tartuffe (1664), Act I, sc. v

Molière Les Femmes Savantes

La grammaire qui sait régenter jusqu'aux rois.
Act II, sc. vi. An apparent reference to Sigismund I, at the Council of Constance, 1414, said to a prelate who had objected to his Majesty's grammar, "Ego sum rex Romanus, et supra grammaticam" (I am the Roman emperor, and am above grammar).
Les Femmes Savantes (1672)

“Ah, there are no longer any children!”

“All that is not prose is verse; and all that is not verse is prose.”

Ah! Il n'y a plus d'enfants!
Le Malade Imaginaire (1673), Act II, sc. xi

“A witty woman is a devil at intrigue.”

Tout ce qui n'est point prose, est vers; et tout ce qui n'est point vers, est prose.
Act II, sc. iv
Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme (1670)

“Good heavens! For more than forty years I have been speaking prose without knowing it.”

Une femme d'esprit est un diable en intrigue.
L'École des Femmes (1662), Act III, sc. iii

“I saw him, I say, saw him with my own eyes.”

Par ma foi, il y a plus de quarante ans que je dis de la prose, sans que j'en susse rien.
Act II, sc. iv
Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme (1670)

“The true Amphitryon
Is the Amphitryon who gives dinner.”

Je l'ai vu, dis-je, de mes propres yeux vu.
Act V, sc. iii
Tartuffe (1664)

“Cover that bosom that I must not see:
Souls are wounded by such things.”

Le véritable Amphitryon,
Est l'Amphitryon où l'on dine.
Act III, sc. v
Amphitryon (1666)

“Anyone may be an honorable man, and yet write verse badly.”

Couvrez ce sein que je ne saurais voir.
Par de pareils objets les âmes sont blessées.
Act III, sc. ii
Tartuffe (1664)

“To pull the chestnuts out of the fire with the cat's paw.”

On peut être honnête homme et faire mal des vers.
Act IV, sc. i
Le Misanthrope (1666)

“I always make the first verse well, but I have trouble making the others.”

Tirer les marrons du feu avec la patte du chat.
L'Étourdi (1655), Act III, sc. v

“The beautiful eyes of my cash-box.”

Je fais toujours bien le premier vers: mais j'ai peine à faire les autres.
'Les Précieuses Ridicules (1659), Act I, sc. xi

“Those whose conduct gives room for talk
Are always the first to attack their neighbors.”

Les beaux yeux de ma cassette.
Act V, scene iii
L'Avare (1668)

Ceux de qui la conduite offre le plus à rire
Sont toujours sur autrui les premiers à médire.
Act I, sc. i
Tartuffe (1664)

“Why Opium produces sleep: … Because there is in it a dormitive power.”
Quare Opium facit dormire: … Quia est in eo Virtus dormitiva.

“You are speaking before a man to whom all Naples is known.”

Le Malade Imaginaire (1673), Act III, sc. iii

“If the purpose of comedy be to chastise human weaknesses I see no reason why any class of people should be exempt. This particular failing is one of the most damaging of all in its public consequences and we have seen that the theatre is a great medium of correction. The finest passages of a serious moral treatise are all too often less effective than those of a satire and for the majority of people there is no better form of reproof than depicting their faults to them: 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.”

Vous parlez devant un homme à qui tout Naples est connu.
Act V, scene v
L'Avare (1668)

“What the devil was he doing in that galley?”

Si l’emploi de la comédie est de corriger les vices des hommes, je ne vois pas par quelle raison il y en aura de privilégiés. Celui-ci est, dans l’État, d’une conséquence bien plus dangereuse que tous les autres ; et nous avons vu que le théâtre a une grande vertu pour la correction. Les plus beaux traits d’une sérieuse morale sont moins puissants, le plus souvent, que ceux de la satire ; et rien ne reprend mieux la plupart des hommes que la peinture de leurs défauts. C’est une grande atteinte aux vices que de les exposer à la risée de tout le monde. On souffre aisément des répréhensions ; mais on ne souffre point la raillerie. On veut bien être méchant, mais on ne veut point être ridicule. Preface http://books.google.com/books?id=HH4fAAAAYAAJ&q=%22On+veut+bien+%C3%AAtre+m%C3%A9chant+mais+on+ne+veut+point+%C3%AAtre+ridicule%22&pg=PT87#v=onepage, as translated by John Wood in The Misanthrope and Other Plays (Penguin, 1959), p. 101 Variant translation http://books.google.com/books?id=vdFMAQAAIAAJ&q=%22People+do+not+mind+being+wicked+but+they+object+to+being+made+ridiculous%22&pg=PA127#v=onepage: People do not mind being wicked; but they object to being made ridiculous. Tartuffe (1664)

Molière Les Fourberies de Scapin

Que diable allait-il faire dans cette galère?
Les Fourberies de Scapin (1671), Act II, sc. vi

“On some preference esteem is based;
To esteem everything is to esteem nothing.”

“Ah that I— You would have it so, you would have it so; George Dandin, you would have it so! This suits you very nicely, and you are served right; you have precisely what you deserve.”

Sur quelque préférence une estime se fonde,
Et c'est n'estimer rien qu'estimer tout le monde.
Act I, sc. i
Le Misanthrope (1666)

“Tell me to whom you are addressing yourself when you say that.
I am addressing myself—I am addressing myself to my cap.”

Ah que je— Vous l'avez voulu, vous l'avez voulu, George Dandin, vous l'avez voulu, cela vous sied fort bien, et vous voilà ajusté comme il faut, vous avez justement ce que vous méritez.
Georges Dandin (1668), Act I, sc. vii

“If everyone were clothed with integrity,
If every heart were just, frank, kindly,
The other virtues would be well-nigh useless,
Since their chief purpose is to make us bear with patience
The injustice of our fellows.”

[J]e veux que tu me dises à qui lu parles quand lu dis cela.
Je parle... je parle à mon bonnet.
Act I, scene iii
L'Avare (1668)

“Doubts are more cruel than the worst of truths.”

Si de probité tout était revêtu,
Si tous les cœurs était francs, justes et dociles,
La plupart des vertus nous seraient inutiles,
Puisqu'on en met l'usage à pouvoir sans ennui
Supporter dans nos droits l'injustice d'autrui.
Act V, sc. i
Le Misanthrope (1666)

“Nearly all men die of their remedies, and not of their illnesses.”

Les doutes sont fâcheux plus que toute autre chose.
Act III, sc. v
Le Misanthrope (1666)

“A woman always has her revenge ready.”

Presque tous les hommes meurent de leurs remèdes, et non pas de leurs maladies.
Le Malade Imaginaire (1673), Act III, sc. iii

“You see him laboring to produce bons mots.”

Une femme a toujours une vengeance prête.
Act II, sc. ii
Tartuffe (1664)