Molière Quotes

What a terrible thing to be a great lord, yet a wicked man.

Why put yourself in charge of Heaven's cause?
Does Heaven need our help to enforce its laws?

Reason is not what decides love.

I find that it is the best trade of all; for, whether we manage well or ill, we are paid just the same.

ORGON. Just Heaven! Can what I hear be credited? TARTUFFE. Yes, brother, I am wicked, I am guilty, A miserable sinner, steeped in evil, The greatest criminal that ever lived. Each moment of my life is stained with soilures; And all is but a mass of crime and filth; Heaven, for my punishment, I see it plainly, Would mortify me now. Whatever wrong They find to charge me with, I'll not deny it But guard against the pride of self-defence. Believe their stories, arm your wrath against me, And drive me like a villain from your house; I cannot have so great a share of shame But what I have deserved a greater still.

Its as if you think you'd never find
Reason and the Sacred intertwined

[...] il n'est rien de si doux que de triompher de la résistance d'une belle personne.

Writing is a little bit like prostitution. First you do it for love. Then you do it for a few friends. Then you do it for money.

Mais, supposé, comme il est vrai, que les exercices de la piété souffrent des intervelles et que les hommes aient besoin de divertissement, je soutiens qu'on ne leur en peut trouver un qui soit plus innocent que la comédie.

If all hearts were candid, just, and tractable, most of our virtues would be useless to us, inasmuch as their functions are to bear, without annoyance, the injustice of others in our good cause; and just in the same way as a heart full of virtue

Le scandale du monde, est ce qui fait l'offense;
Et ce n'est pas pécher, que pécher en silence.

Je le soutiendrai devant tout le monde.

Ur. What is your ailment, then? When did it seize you? Cl. Above three hours ago; and I brought it from the Palais Royal. Ur. How? Cl. I have just seen, as a punishment for my sins, that villainous rhapsody The School for Wives. I feel still a twinge from the-fainting-fit which it gave me; I believe I shall not be myself again for a fortnight.

Beauty without intelligence is like a hook without bait.

Soit qu'on fasse bien ou soit qu'on fasse mal, on est toujours payé de même sorte.