67 Quotes by Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux

Le vrai peut quelquefois n'être pas vraisemblable.(At times truth may not seem probable)

No one who cannot limit himself has ever been able to write.

The world is full of fools; and he who would not wish to see one, must not only shut himself up alone, but must also break his looking-glass.

However big the fool, there is always a bigger fool to admire him.

The dreadful burden of having nothing to do.

The wisest man is he who does not fancy that he is so at all.

Happy who in his verse can gently steer From grave to light, from pleasant to severe.

But satire, ever moral, ever new, Delights the reader and instructs him, too. She, if good sense refine her sterling page, Oft shakes some rooted folly of the age.

He [Moliere] pleases all the world, but can- not please himself.