Quotes by Pierre Corneille

• Self-love is the source of all our other loves.
• He who does not fear death cares naught for threats.
• Severity is allowable where gentleness has no effect.
• One often calms one's grief by recounting it.
• One ought to have a good memory when he has told a lie.
• Reason and love are sworn enemies.
• One is often guilty by being too just.
• Just vengeance does not call for punishment.
• Peace is produced by war.
• One half of my life has put the other half in the grave.
• Oh, how sweet it is to pity the fate of an enemy who can no longer threaten us!
• Oh rage! Oh despair! Oh age, my enemy!
• My sweetest hope is to lose hope.
• The crime and not the scaffold makes the shame.
• Love is a tyrant sparing none.
• To he who avenges a father, nothing is impossible.
• It takes good memory to keep up a lie.
• It matters more how one gives than what one gives.
• Master of the universe but not of myself, I am the only rebel against my absolute power.
• To win without risk is to triumph without glory.
• It is the crime not the scaffold which is the disgrace.
• When we conquer without danger our triumph is without glory.
• When there is no peril in the fight there is no glory in the triumph.
• When the patient loves his disease, how unwilling he is to allow a remedy to be applied.
• We triumph without glory when we conquer without danger.
• We never taste happiness in perfection, our most fortunate successes are mixed with sadness.
• We never taste a perfect joy; our happiest successes are mixed with sadness.
• To conquer without danger is to conquer without glory.
• Treachery is noble when aimed at tyranny.
• The greater the effort, the greater the glory.
• To vanquish without peril is to triumph without glory.
• To take revenge halfheartedly is to court disaster; either condemn or crown your hatred.
• To die for one's country is such a worthy fate that all compete for so beautiful a death.
• Those who easily forgive invite offenses.
• This dark brightness that falls from the stars.
• They who overcome their desires once can overcome them always.
• The subject of a good tragedy must not be realistic.
• The manner of giving is worth more than the gift.
• True, I am young, but for souls nobly born valor doesn't await the passing of years.
• Alas, I emerge from one disaster to fall into a worse.
• Every man of courage is a man of his word.
• Each instant of life is a step toward death.
• Do your duty and leave the rest to heaven.
• Clemency is the noblest trait which can reveal a true monarch to the world.
• Brave men are brave from the very first.
• As great as kings may be, they are what we are: they can err like other men.
• Flee an enemy who knows your weakness.
• Ambition aspires to descend.
• Desire increases when fulfillment is postponed.
• After having won a scepter, few are so generous as to disdain the pleasures of ruling.
• A Victory without danger is a triumph without glory.
• A true king is neither husband nor father; he considers his throne and nothing else.
• A liar is always lavish of oaths.
• A good memory is needed after one has lied.
• A first impulse was never a crime.
• It is a crime against the State to be powerful enough to commit one.
• He who forgives readily only invites offense.
• 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.
• I can be forced to live without happiness, but I will never consent to live without honor.
• In the service of Caesar, everything is legitimate.
• In recounting our woes, we often soothe them.
• I would not like a king who could obey.
• I see, I know, I believe, I am undeceived.
• Danger breeds best on too much confidence.
• I don't know how to defend myself: surprised innocence cannot imagine being under suspicion.
• Force is legitimate where gentleness avails not.
• I agree to, or rather aspire to, my doom.
• How delicious is pleasure after torment!
• He who plays advisor is no longer ambassador.
• Happiness seems made to be shared.
• He who fears not death fears not a threat.
• Guess, if you can, and choose, if you dare.
• I have deserved neither so much honor or so much disgrace.
• He who can live in infamy is unworthy of life.
• He who allows me to rule is in fact my master.
• He who allows himself to be insulted deserves to be.
• He who pardons easily invites offense.