Pierre Corneille Quotes - Page 3

A good memory is needed after one has lied.

We triumph without glory when we conquer without danger.

Violence is just, where kindness is vain.

He who allows me to rule is in fact my master

He who plays advisor is no longer ambassador.

Brave men are brave from the very first.

By speaking of our misfortunes we often relieve them. [Fr., A raconter ses maux souvent on les soulage.]

To take revenge halfheartedly is to court disaster; either condemn or crown your hatred.

All great virtues become great men.

My sweetest hope is to lose hope

My reason, it's true, controls my feelings, but whatever its authority, it doesn't rule them so much as tyrannize them.

Whoever can do as he pleases, commands when he entreats.

Omnipotence is bought with ceaseless fear.

The man who pardons easily courts injury.

Just as We never taste happiness in perfection, our most fortunate successes are mixed with sadness. So too we never taste sadness completely, as things could always be worse in some way and for this we can be grateful.

Desire increases when fulfillment is postponed.

I am young, it is true; but in noble souls valor does not wait for years.

Peace is produced by war.

Liberty may be of no more use Than stirring up the flame of civil wars; Then, by disorder fatal to the world, One wants no king, the other wants no equal.

Oh rage! Oh despair! Oh age, my enemy!

He who does not fear death cares naught for threats.

One doesn't wish to see those to whom one owes so much.

I don't know how to defend myself: surprised innocence cannot imagine being under suspicion.

Ambition becomes displeasing when it is once satiated; there is a reaction; and as our spirit, till our last sigh, is always aiming toward some object, it falls back on itself, having nothing else on which to rest; and having reached the summit, it longs to descend.

What destroys one man preserves another.