Molière

One ought to examine himself for a very long time before thinking of condemning others.

Loin d'être aux lois d'un homme en esclave asservie,
Mariez-vous, ma soeur, à la philosophie.

Writing is like prostitution. First you do it for love, and then for a few close friends, and then for money.

You are the sole expounder of the doctrine; Wisdom shall die with you, no doubt, good brother, You are the only wise, the sole enlightened,

Bél. What is the meaning of this Eh? and what is there surprising in what I say? One is handsome enough, I imagine, to be able to say that it is not one heart only which is subject to our empire; and Dorante, Damis, Cléonte, and Lycidas may show that we have some charms. Ar. These gentlemen love you? Bél. Yes, with all their might. Ar. They have told you so? Bél. No one has taken that liberty; they have so well known to reverence me up to this day, that they never breathed a word of their love. But to offer me their hearts and to devote themselves to my services, dumb interpreters have sufficiently done their office. Ar. We hardly ever see Damis come into the house.

Mon Dieu, que vous êtes vulgaire ! Pour moi, un de mes étonnements, c'est que vous ayez pu faire une fille si spirituelle que moi.

طرطوف: آه يا إلهي، أرجوك قبل أن تتكلني خذي هذا المنديل واستري هذا الصدر الذي لايمكنني أن أراه
إن مثل هذه المناظر لتؤذي النفوس،
وإن هذا ليثير الخواطر الأليمة

دورين: إذن فأنت سهل على الغواية،
وللجسد على حواسك تأثير كبير

جول لومتر: لماذا دورين ، بل لماذا تكشف كل النساء عن صدورهن إذا لم يكن ذلك من أجل إثارة حواسنا؟

"L'amour est un grand maître

"Il le faut avouer, l'amour est un grand maître
Ce qu'on ne sut jamais il nous enseigne à l'être ;
Et souvent de nos moeurs l'absolu changement
Devient, par ses leçons, l'ouvrage d'un moment ;
De la nature, en nous, il force les obstacles,
Et ses effets soudains ont de l'air des miracles ;
D'un avare à l'instant il fait un libéral,
Un vaillant d'un poltron, un civil d'un brutal ;
Il rend agile à tout l'âme la plus pesante,
Et donne de l'esprit à la plus innocente."
L'Ecole des femmes, III, 4 (v. 900-909)"

Les doutes sont fâcheux plus que toute autre chose.

I always make the first verse well, but I have trouble making the others.

Arnolphe. Were you not wearied? Agnès. I am never wearied. Arnolphe. What did you do then, these nine or ten days? Agnès. Six shirts, I think, and six nightcaps also.

You take pains for me which are unnecessary; learned conversations are not at all in my way: I love to live at ease; and, in whatever is said, one must take too much trouble to become clever; it is an ambition which does not at all enter my mind. I find myself very well, mother, in being stupid; and I prefer having nothing but common-place talk to tormenting myself to say fine words.

Why Opium produces sleep: … Because there is in it a dormitive power.

He makes his cook his merit, And the world visits his dinners and not him.

Betrayed and wronged in everything,
I’ll flee this bitter world where vice is king,
And seek some spot unpeopled and apart
Where I’ll be free to have an honest heart.