Nicolas Boileau-Despraux Quotes

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

Nicolas Boileau-Despraux

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

Nicolas Boileau-Despraux

He (Molire) pleases all the world, but cannot please himself.

Nicolas Boileau-Despraux

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

Nicolas Boileau-Despraux

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-Despraux

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-Despraux

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

Nicolas Boileau-Despraux

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-Despraux

Virtue alone is the unerring sign of a noble soul.

Nicolas Boileau-Despraux

Greatest fools are oft most satisfied.

Nicolas Boileau-Despraux

I can call nothing by name if that is not his name. I call a cat a cat, and Rollet a rogue.

Nicolas Boileau-Despraux

A fop sometimes gives important advice.

Nicolas Boileau-Despraux

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

Nicolas Boileau-Despraux

At times truth may not seem probable.

Nicolas Boileau-Despraux

A fool always finds one still more foolish to admire him.

Nicolas Boileau-Despraux