Pierre Corneille Quotes & Sayings

If you betray me, can I take a better revenge than to love the person you hate? — Pierre Corneille

Violence is just, where kindness is vain. — Pierre Corneille

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. — Pierre Corneille

It is hard to hate what one has loved, and a half-extinguished fire is soon relit. — Pierre Corneille

The subject of a good tragedy must not be realistic. — Pierre Corneille

Among wellborn spirits courage does not depend on age. — Pierre Corneille

Every man of courage is a man of his word. — Pierre Corneille

Flee an enemy who knows your weakness. — Pierre Corneille

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

The greater the risk, the sweeter the fruit. — Pierre Corneille

It is the crime not the scaffold which is the disgrace. — Pierre Corneille

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

Happiness is meant to be shared. — Pierre Corneille

When there is no peril in the fight there is no glory in the triumph. — Pierre Corneille

A Victory without danger is a triumph without glory. — Pierre Corneille

To vanquish without peril is to triumph without glory. — Pierre Corneille

How sweet to die after one's enemies. — Pierre Corneille

I have deserved neither so much honor or so much disgrace. — Pierre Corneille

Your arm is unvanquished, but not invincible. — Pierre Corneille

Danger breeds best on too much confidence. — Pierre Corneille

It is an imprudence common to kings to listen to too much advice and to err in their choice. — Pierre Corneille

Force is legitimate where gentleness avails not. — Pierre Corneille

Rome, if you do not wish me to betray you, make enemies that I can hate! — Pierre Corneille

He who allows me to rule is in fact my master. — Pierre Corneille

One ought to have a good memory when he has told a lie. — Pierre Corneille

He who pardons easily invites offense. — Pierre Corneille

There are secret ties, there are sympathies, by the sweet relationship of which souls that are well matched attach themselves to each other, and are affected by I know not what, which cannot be explained — Pierre Corneille

that darkling brightness which falls from the stars. — Pierre Corneille

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

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

The people you killed seem to be in excellent health. — Pierre Corneille

Ambition becomes displeasing when it is once satiated; there is a reaction; and as our spirit, till our last sigh, is always aiming toward some object, it falls back on itself, having nothing else on which to rest; and having reached the summit, it longs to descend. — Pierre Corneille

I believe everything to be just when a king ordains it. — Pierre Corneille

Patience and time conquer all things. — Pierre Corneille

It matters more how one gives than what one gives. — Pierre Corneille

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. — Pierre Corneille

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

And the combat ceased, for want of combatants. — Pierre Corneille

They who overcome their desires once can overcome them always. — Pierre Corneille

Rome is no longer in Rome, it is here where I am. — Pierre Corneille

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

Ambition, having reached the summit, longs to descend. — Pierre Corneille

One is often guilty by being too just. — Pierre Corneille

When a woman has the gift of silence she possesses a quality above the vulgar. It is a gift of Heaven seldom bestowed; without a little miracle it cannot be accomplished; and Nature suffers violence when Heaven puts a woman in the humor of observing silence. — Pierre Corneille

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

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

Time is a great manager: it arranges things well. — Pierre Corneille

Ah, though a Roman, I am not less a man. — Pierre Corneille

This dark brightness that falls from the stars. — Pierre Corneille

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

He on whom heaven confers a sceptre knows not the weight till he bears it. — Pierre Corneille

It is the gift of heaven and not of reason. — Pierre Corneille

Ambition aspires to descend. — Pierre Corneille

As our self-interests differ, so do our feelings. — Pierre Corneille

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

A first impulse was never a crime. — Pierre Corneille

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

In relating our misfortunes, we often feel them lightened. — Pierre Corneille

We read that we ought to forgive our enemies; but we do not read that we ought to forgive our friends. — Pierre Corneille

The fire which seems out often sleeps beneath the cinders. — Pierre Corneille

To win without risk is to triumph without glory. — Pierre Corneille

A good memory is needed once we have lied.
[Fr., Il faut bonne memoire apres qu'on a menti.] — Pierre Corneille

I am young, it is true; but in noble souls valor does not wait for years. — Pierre Corneille

Doubt, but still hate! — Pierre Corneille

I see, I know, I believe, I am undeceived. — Pierre Corneille

Whoever can do as he pleases, commands when he entreats. — Pierre Corneille

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

It takes good memory to keep up a lie. — Pierre Corneille

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

All great virtues become great men. — Pierre Corneille

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

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

I would not like a king who could obey. — Pierre Corneille

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

Ambition displeases when it has been sated ... having reached the peak, it aspires to descend. — Pierre Corneille

A good memory is needed after one has lied. — Pierre Corneille

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

Obedience is a hard profession. — Pierre Corneille

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

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

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

A liar is always lavish of oaths. — Pierre Corneille

Peace is produced by war. — Pierre Corneille

Love is a tyrant sparing none. — Pierre Corneille

Severity is allowable where gentleness has no effect. — Pierre Corneille

These flattering mirrors reflect imperfectly what is within; the countenance is often a gay deceiver. What defects of mind lie hidden under its beauty! What fair exteriors conceal base souls! — Pierre Corneille

I would tell you I love you, Sir, if I knew what it was to love. — Pierre Corneille

He who plays advisor is no longer ambassador. — Pierre Corneille

Heaven often regulates effects by their causes, and pays the wicked what they have deserved. — Pierre Corneille

Your virtue raises your glory above your crime. — Pierre Corneille

Here honor binds me, and I wish to satisfy it. — Pierre Corneille

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

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

Treachery is noble when aimed at tyranny. — Pierre Corneille

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. — Pierre Corneille

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

My sweetest hope is to lose hope. — Pierre Corneille

Each instant of life is a step toward death. — Pierre Corneille

Those who resolve to conquer or die, are rarely conquered. — Pierre Corneille

The man who pardons easily courts injury. — Pierre Corneille