Pierre Corneille Quotations

When there is no peril in the fight there is no glory in the triumph.

Self-love is the source of all our other loves.

We never taste a perfect joy; our happiest successes are mixed with sadness.

We never taste happiness in perfection, our most fortunate successes are mixed with sadness.

As great as kings may be, they are what we are: they can err like other men.

He who allows himself to be insulted deserves to be.

To win without risk is to triumph without glory.

A true king is neither husband nor father; he considers his throne and nothing else.

To he who avenges a father, nothing is impossible

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

This dark brightness that falls from the stars.

It takes good memory to keep up a lie

To vanquish without peril is to triumph without glory.

Every man of courage is a man of his word.

The greater the effort, the greater the glory.

The manner of giving is worth more than the gift.

Do your duty and leave the rest to heaven.

When the patient loves his disease, how unwilling he is to allow a remedy to be applied.

Deceit is the game of petty spirits, and that is by nature a woman's quality.

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

One ought to have a good memory when he has told a lie

One half of my life has put the other half in the grave.

Guess, if you can, and choose, if you dare.

He who plays advisor is no longer ambassador.

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

He who can live in infamy is unworthy of life

Alas, I emerge from one disaster to fall into a worse.

Oh, how sweet it is to pity the fate of an enemy who can no longer threaten us!

A Victory without danger is a triumph without glory.

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

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

One is often guilty by being too just.

Brave men are brave from the very first.

One often calms one's grief by recounting it.

True, I am young, but for souls nobly born valor doesn't await the passing of years.

An example is often a deceptive mirror, and the order of destiny, so troubling to our thoughts, is not always found written in things past

Each instant of life is a step toward death.

In recounting our woes, we often soothe them.

Master of the universe but not of myself, I am the only rebel against my absolute power.

We triumph without glory when we conquer without danger.

It is the crime not the scaffold which is the disgrace.

It matters more how one gives than what one gives

The crime and not the scaffold makes the shame.

A good memory is needed after one has lied.

Severity is allowable where gentleness has no effect.

He who does not fear death cares naught for threats.

He who is hated by all can not expect to live long.

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

Clemency is the noblest trait which can reveal a true monarch to the world.

The subject of a good tragedy must not be realistic.

He who allows me to rule is in fact my master

I would not like a king who could obey.

To die for one's country is such a worthy fate that all compete for so beautiful a death.

I have deserved neither so much honor or so much disgrace.

In the service of Caesar, everything is legitimate.

It is a crime against the State to be powerful enough to commit one.

After having won a scepter, few are so generous as to disdain the pleasures of ruling.

I see, I know, I believe, I am undeceived.

They who overcome their desires once can overcome them always.

To conquer without danger is to conquer without glory.

It is a flame which sinks for lack of fuel.

When the patient loves his disease, how unwilling he is tallow a remedy to be applied.

Flee an enemy who knows your weakness.

He should be envied Who when his strength is spent lays down his life. Old age reserves a melancholy fate For noble souls before their life is done.

When we conquer without danger our triumph is without glory.

Do your duty, and leave the outcome to the Gods.

Do your duty, and let the gods do the rest.

A service beyond all recompense - Weighs so heavy that it almost gives offense

By speaking of our misfortunes we often relieve them.

And the battle ended through lack of combatants.

I am master of myself, as of the Universe; I am, and I wish to be so.

A liar is always lavish of oaths.

Time is a great manager: it arranges things well.

Good fortune leads one to the highest glory, But to renounce it calls for equal courage.

How delicious is pleasure after torment!

For souls nobly born, valor doesn't await the passing of years

Peace is produced by war.

Love lives on hope, and dies when hope is dead; It is a flame which sinks for lack of fuel.

Kindness acts Not always as you think; a hated hand Renders it odious.

Happiness seems made to be shared.

Omnipotence is bought with ceaseless fear.

Let us attend to the present, and as to the future we shall know how to manage when the occasion arrives.

What destroys one man preserves another.

Happiness is meant to be shared.

In relating our misfortunes, we often feel them lightened.

Rome alone can resist Rome.

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.

Your virtue raises your glory above your crime.

A liar is full of oaths.

How sweet to die after one's enemies.

It is the gift of heaven and not of reason.

The worst of all States is the democratic State.

A monarch must sometimes rule even himself: he who wants everything must risk very little.

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

The people you killed seem to be in excellent health.

Be it only for a day, it is still a glory without equal to be master of the world just that day.

When obedience is so impious, revolt is a necessity.

It is only blood that can wash away such an outrage; die or kill.

I am Roman, alas, because Horace is Roman.

I am master of myself as of the universe, so I am; so I wish to be.