Pierre Corneille
We never taste a perfect joy; our happiest successes are mixed with sadness.Collection: Sad
We never taste happiness in perfection, our most fortunate successes are mixed with sadness.Collection: Happiness
Self-love is the source of all our other loves.Collection: Love
Deceit is the game of petty spirits, and that is by nature a woman's quality.Collection: Nature
Every man of courage is a man of his word.Collection: Courage
Oh rage! Oh despair! Oh age, my enemy!Collection: Age
To win without risk is to triumph without glory.Collection: Wisdom
A true king is neither husband nor father; he considers his throne and nothing else.Collection: Power
He who does not fear death cares naught for threats.Collection: Death
The greater the effort, the greater the glory.Collection: Great
One often calms one's grief by recounting it.Collection: Sympathy
Happiness seems made to be shared.Collection: Happiness
It is a crime against the State to be powerful enough to commit one.
Oh, how sweet it is to pity the fate of an enemy who can no longer threaten us!
After having won a scepter, few are so generous as to disdain the pleasures of ruling.
I can be forced to live without happiness, but I will never consent to live without honor.
One half of my life has put the other half in the grave.
My reason, it's true, controls my feelings, but whatever its authority, it doesn't rule them so much as tyrannize them.
One is often guilty by being too just.
They who overcome their desires once can overcome them always.
An example is often a deceptive mirror, and the order of destiny, so troubling to our thoughts, is not always found written in things past.
He who pardons easily invites offense.
Each instant of life is a step toward death.
As great as kings may be, they are what we are: they can err like other men.
In recounting our woes, we often soothe them.
He who allows me to rule is in fact my master.
It matters more how one gives than what one gives.
The subject of a good tragedy must not be realistic.
He who plays advisor is no longer ambassador.
To vanquish without peril is to triumph without glory.
The manner of giving is worth more than the gift.
A liar is always lavish of oaths.
Treachery is noble when aimed at tyranny.
A Victory without danger is a triumph without glory.
He who allows himself to be insulted deserves to be.
This dark brightness that falls from the stars.
We triumph without glory when we conquer without danger.
Guess, if you can, and choose, if you dare.
When there is no peril in the fight there is no glory in the triumph.
Just vengeance does not call for punishment.
Brave men are brave from the very first.
A good memory is needed after one has lied.
To take revenge halfheartedly is to court disaster; either condemn or crown your hatred.
Master of the universe but not of myself, I am the only rebel against my absolute power.
I see, I know, I believe, I am undeceived.
True, I am young, but for souls nobly born valor doesn't await the passing of years.
Severity is allowable where gentleness has no effect.
It is the crime not the scaffold which is the disgrace.
The crime and not the scaffold makes the shame.
To he who avenges a father, nothing is impossible.