Moliere
I have the fault of being a little more sincere than is proper.
It's true Heaven forbids some pleasures, but a compromise can usually be found.
Esteem must be founded on preference: to hold everyone in high esteem is to esteem nothing.
He who follows his lessons tastes a profound peace, and looks upon everybody as a bunch of manure.
There is no secret of the heart which our actions do not disclose.Collection: Heart
I assure you, an educated fool is more foolish than an uneducated one.Collection: Wisdom
People are all alike in their promises. It is only in their deeds that they differ.Collection: People
People spend most of their lives worrying about things that never happen.Collection: People
Beauty without intelligence is like a hook without bait.Collection: Bait
Love is a great master. It teaches us to be what we never were.Collection: Love
Most people die from the remedy rather than from the illness.Collection: Death
Great is the fortune of he who possesses a good bottle, a good book, and a good friend.Collection: Book
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.Collection: People
Things are only worth what you make them worth.Collection: Perspective
People can be induced to swallow anything, provided it is sufficiently seasoned with praise.Collection: People
A woman always has her revenge ready.Collection: Revenge
You have but to hold forth in cap and gown, and any gibberish becomes learning, all nonsense passes for sense.Collection: Cute
We should look long and carefully at ourselves before we pass judgement on others.Collection: Long
No one is safe from slander. The best way is to pay no attention to it, but live in innocence and let the world talk.Collection: Attention
Hypocrisy is a fashionable vice, and all fashionable vices pass for virtue.Collection: Fashion
The true touchstone of wit is the impromptu.Collection: Wit
Long is the road from conception to completion.Collection: Long
Cultivated people should be superior to any consideration so sordid as a mercenary interest.Collection: Money
Everyone has a right to his own course of action.Collection: Action
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.Collection: Inspirational
Malicious tongues spread their poison abroad and nothing here below is proof against them.Collection: Poison
Even Rome cannot grant us a dispensation from death.Collection: Death
It is madness beyond compare To try to reform the world.Collection: Society
...all the failures of the great leaders have arisen merely from a lack of skill in dancing.Collection: Dance
I believe that two and two are four and that four and four are eight.Collection: Believe
One is easily fooled by that which one loves.Collection: Heartbreak
Rest assured that there is nothing which wounds the heart of a noble man more deeply than the thought his honour is assailed.Collection: Heart
We always speak well when we manage to be understood.Collection: Communication
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?Collection: Names
Esteem must be founded on some sort of preference. Bestow it on everybody and it ceases to have any meaning at all.Collection: Respect
Our minds need relaxation, and give way unless we mix with work a little play.Collection: Play
It is good food and not fine words that keeps me alive.Collection: Fine Words
Birth is nothing without virtue, and we have no claim to share in the glory of our ancestors unless we endeavor to resemble them.Collection: Vices
Isn't the greatest rule of all the rules simply to please?Collection: Literature
It is fine for a woman to know a lot; but I don't want her to have this shocking desire to be learned for learnedness sake. When I ask a woman a question, I like her to pretend to ignore what she really knows.Collection: Desire
The scandal of the world is what makes the offence; it is not sinful to sin in silence.Collection: Silence
There's nothing people can't contrive to praise or condemn and find justification for doing so, according to their age and their inclinations.Collection: People
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.Collection: Powerful
Outside of Paris, there is no hope for the cultured.Collection: Cities
Of all human foibles love of living is the most powerful.Collection: Life
Time has nothing to do with the matter.Collection: Poetry
The smallest errors are always the best.Collection: Errors
In order to prove a friend to one's guests, frugality must reign in one's meals; and, according to an ancient saying, one must eat to live, not live to eat.Collection: Order