19 Quotes by Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais

FIGARO. I was poor and people looked down on me. I showed some brains and people hated me. Now, with a pretty wife and money…BARTHOLO [laughing]. People will rush to be your friend.FIGARO. They will?BARTHOLO. I know them.

COUNT. Money? Who for?FIGARO. Money, for God’s sake, and lots of it. Money makes the plots go round.

COUNT. The fact is, when you start losing your temper, even the most tightly controlled imagination will run wild, just as it does in dreams.

OLD YOUTHFUL [sneezing]. But sir, it’s not fair. Where’s the justice…BARTHOLO. Justice! Ignorant clods like you can go on and on about justice. But I’m your master and that means I’m always right!OLD YOUTHFUL [sneezing]. But if a thing is true…BARTHOLO. If something’s true! If I don’t want a thing to be true, it isn’t true by my say-so. If you let any Tom, Dick, or Harry be right, you’d soon see what’s to become of authority and discipline!

FIGARO. I’d say that the nonsense that finds its way into print only matters to the people who would like to ban it; that without the freedom to criticize, praise is meaningless

FIGARO. Scared? Nonsense! That’s no way to think, Madame. If you give in to the fear of consequences, you’re already living with the consequences of fear.

ROSINE. What gives you the right?BARTHOLO. The oldest right in the world: the right of the strong.

Only one thing to it: a strong stomach. The guts to gladhand a man you're going to stab in the back; pledge allegiance to principles you stomp on every day; righteously denounce some despot in the press and sell him arms under the table. The talent to whip up the voters' worst passions while you seem to call on their highest instincts, and the sense to stay wrapped in the flag. That's politics: I'll take the simple life.

Nowadays what isn't worth saying is sung.(Aujourd'hui ce qui ne vaut pas la peine d'être dit, on le chante.)