Boileau Quotes

#1. The gene," Dr. Narcejac-Boileau said, "is associated with social dominance and strong control over other people. We have isolated it in sports leaders, CEOs, and heads of state. We believe the gene is found in all dictators throughout history.

Michael Crichton

#2. Boileau said that Kings, Gods and Heroes only were fit subjects for literature. The writer can only write about what he admires. Present-day kings aren't very inspiring, the gods are on a vacation and about the only heroes left are the scientists and the poor.

John Steinbeck

#3. A forward critic often dupes us With sham quotations peri hupsos, And if we have not read Longinus, Will magisterially outshine us. Then, lest with Greek he over-run ye, Procure the book for love or money, Translated from Boileau's translation, And quote quotation on quotation.

Jonathan Swift

#4. Bring your work back to the workshop twenty times. Polish it continuously, and polish it again.

Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux

#5. Sometimes a fool makes a good suggestion.

Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux

#6. Praising an honest person who doesn't deserve it, always wounds them.

Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux

#7. That which is repeated too often becomes insipid and tedious.

Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux

#8. To support those of your rights authorized by Heaven, destroy everything rather than yield; that is the spirit of the Church.

Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux

#9. The dreadful burden of having nothing to do.

Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux

#10. In spite of every sage whom Greece can show, Unerring wisdom never dwelt below; Folly in all of every age we see, The only difference lies in the degree.

Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux

#11. Now two punctilious envoys, Thine and Mine Embroil the earth about a fancied line; And, dwelling much on right and much on wrong, Prove how the right is chiefly with the strong.

Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux

#12. Honor is like an island, rugged and without a beach; once we have left it, we can never return.

Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux

#13. Ignorance is always ready to admire itself. Procure yourself critical friends.

Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux

#14. Some excel in rhyme who reason foolishly.

Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux

#15. A fool always finds one still more foolish to admire him.
[Fr., Un sot trouve toujours un plus sot qui l'admire.]

Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux

#16. Hasten slowly, and without losing heart, put your work twenty times upon the anvil.
[Fr., Hatez-vous lentement; et, sans perdre courage,
Vingt fois sur le metier remettez votre ouvrage.]

Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux

#17. Gold lends a touch of beauty even to the ugly.

Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux

#18. Every age has its pleasures, its style of wit, and its own ways.

Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux

#19. Nothing is really beautiful but truth, and truth alone is lovely.

Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux

#20. The world is full of fools; and he who would not wish to see one, must not only shut himself up alone, but must also break his looking-glass.

Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux

#21. Everything that poverty touches becomes frightful.

Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux

#22. Whate'er is well conceived is clearly said, And the words to say it flow with ease.

Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux

#23. A fool always finds a greater fool to admire him.

Nicolas Boileau

#24. Who is content with nothing possesses all things.

Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux

#25. Often the fear on one evil leads us into a worse.

Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux

#26. Who lives content with little possesses everything.

Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux

#27. Truth has not such an urgent air.

Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux

#28. However big the fool, there is always a bigger fool to admire him.

Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux

#29. A fool can always find a greater fool who admires him.

Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux

#30. Of every four words I write, I strike out three.

Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux

#31. He [Moliere] pleases all the world, but can- not please himself.

Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux

#32. The wisest man is generally he who thinks himself the least so.

Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux

#33. But satire, ever moral, ever new, Delights the reader and instructs him, too. She, if good sense refine her sterling page, Oft shakes some rooted folly of the age.

Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux

#34. It is the sin which we have not committed which seems the most monstrous.

Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux

#35. Attach yourself to those who advise you rather than praise you.

Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux

#36. All men are fools, and with every effort they differ only in the degree.

Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux

#37. A fop sometimes gives important advice.

Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux

#38. A burlesque word is often a powerful sermon.

Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux

#39. Virtue alone is the unerring sign of a noble soul.

Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux

#40. Time flies and draws us with it. The moment in which I am speaking is already far from me.

Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux

#41. Happy the poet who with ease can steer
From grave to gay, from lively to severe.
[Lat., Heureux qui, dans ses vers, sait d'une voix legere
Passer du grave au doux, du plaisant au severe.]

Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux

#42. He who cannot limit himself will never know how to write.

Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux

#43. It is in vain a daring author thinks of attaining to the heights of Parnassus if he does not feel the secret influence of heaven and if his natal star has not formed him to be a poet.

Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux

#44. Of all the creatures that creep, swim, or fly, Peopling the earth, the waters, and the sky, From Rome to Iceland, Paris to Japan, I really think the greatest fool is man.

Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux

#45. What is conceived well is expressed clearly.

Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux

#46. Though you be sprung in direct line from Hercules, if you show a lowborn meanness, that long succession of ancestors whom you disgrace are so many witnesses against you; and this grand display of their tarnished glory but serves to make your ignominy more evident.

Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux

#47. Nature always springs to the surface and manages to show what she is. It is vain to stop or try to drive her back. She breaks through every obstacle, pushes forward, and at last makes for herself a way.

Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux

#48. Gold gives an appearance of beauty even to ugliness: but with poverty everything becomes frightful.

Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux

#49. Whatever we well understand we express clearly, and words flow with ease.

Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux

#50. No one who cannot limit himself has ever been able to write.

Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux

#51. When we envy another, we make their virtue our vice.

Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux

#52. Something of calumny always sticks.

Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux

#53. The greatest fools are oft the most satisfied.

Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux

#54. Let a single complete action, in one place and one day, keep the theatre packed to the last.

Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux

#55. The wisest man is he who does not fancy that he is so at all.

Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux

#56. A proud bigot, who is vain enough to think that he can deceive even God by affected zeal, and throwing the veil of holiness over vices, damns all mankind by the word of his power.

Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux

#57. A warmed-up dinner was never worth much.

Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux

#58. Happy who in his verse can gently steer From grave to light, from pleasant to severe.

Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux

#59. Of all the animals which fly in the air, walk on the land, or swim in the sea, from Paris to Peru, from Japan to Rome, the most foolish animal in my opinion is man.

Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux

#60. If your descent is from heroic sires, Show in your life a remnant of their fires.

Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux

#61. Nothing but truth is lovely, nothing fair.

Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux

#62. Greatest fools are the most often satisfied.

Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux