Pierre Corneille Quotes

Qui peut tout doit tout craindre.

Heaven absolves all crimes committed to gain a throne
Once Heaven gives it to us.

I can be forced to live without happiness, but I will never consent to live without honor.

Your Christians, whom one persecutes in vain,
Have something in them that surpasses the human.
They lead a life of such innocence,
That the heavens owe them some recognition:
That they arise the stronger the more they are beaten down
Is hardly the result of common virtues.

Je consens, ou plutôt j'aspire à ma ruine.

Oh! how many actions, how many fabulous exploits
Remain without glory in the midst of the night.

Va jusqu'en leur pays leur reporter la guerre,
Commander mon armée, et ravager leur terre,
A ce nom seul de Cid ils tremblerons d'effroi,
Ils t'ont nommé Seigneur, et te voudront pour roi.

These little rulers who may rule a year,
Who see their pow’r will be for such short time,
Seek to abort the fruit of well made plans,
Lest it belong to those who follow them.
As they have little share of public goods,
They try to harvest much for their own selves,
Each man, they know, will gladly pardon them,
In hopes of one day profiting the same:
The people’s state of all states is the worst. — Cinna

Il faut bonne mémoire après qu'on a menti.

C'est n'avoir pas perdu tout votre temps à Rome,
Que vous savoir ainsi défendre en galant homme:
Vous avez de l'esprit, si vous n'avez du cœur.

A first impulse was never a crime.

The fire which seems out often sleeps beneath the cinders.

Tous maux sont pareils alors qu’ils sont extrêmes.

I agree to, or rather aspire to, my doom.

Toujours aimer, toujours souffrir, toujours mourir.