Corneille Quotes & Sayings

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

Omnipotence is bought with ceaseless fear. — 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

Every brave man is a man of his word; to such base vices he cannot stoop, and shuns more than death the shame of lying. — Pierre Corneille

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

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

When obedience is so impious, revolt is a necessity. — Pierre Corneille

Those who easily forgive invite offenses. — Pierre Corneille

Flee an enemy who knows your weakness. — Pierre Corneille

He who does not fear death cares naught for threats. — Pierre Corneille

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

When I went to university, I decided that I would like to do something related to plant ecology, because I felt that plants were so beautiful. When I am studying plants, I feel like I am talking with some kind of supernatural life, like I am talking with someone who does not speak. — Corneille Ewango

I am Roman, alas, because Horace is Roman. — 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

To he who avenges a father, nothing is impossible. — Pierre Corneille

Happiness is meant to be shared. — Pierre Corneille

The manner of giving is worth more than the gift. — Pierre Corneille

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

Building capacities for the young generation is going to make a better generation and a better future tomorrow for Africa. — Corneille Ewango

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

He who despises life is his life's master. — 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

We triumph without glory when we conquer without danger. — Pierre Corneille

It is a law, of the gods which is never broken, to sell somewhat dearly the great benefits which they confer on us. — Pierre Corneille

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

The king, just and prudent, wants only those things which he can get. — Pierre Corneille

Discovering new species is a passion. A day without collecting plants is painful for me. — Corneille Ewango

Corneille is to Shakespeare as a clipped hedge is to a forest. — Samuel Johnson

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

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

He who forgives readily only invites offense. — Pierre Corneille

It is the guilt, not the scaffold, which constitutes the shame. — Pierre Corneille

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

Happiness seems made to be shared. — Pierre Corneille

Who is all-powerful should fear everything. — Pierre Corneille

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

Rome alone can resist Rome. — 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 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

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

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

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

One often calms one's grief by recounting it. — Pierre Corneille

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

Tragedy warms the soul, elevates the heart, can and ought to create heroes. In this sense, perhaps, France owes a part of her great actions to Corneille. — Napoleon Bonaparte

Treachery is noble when aimed at tyranny. — Pierre Corneille

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

The greater the effort,
the greater the glory. — Pierre Corneille

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

Our patriotism comes straight from the Romans. This is why French children are encouraged to seek inspiration for it in Corneille. It is a pagan virtue, if these two words are compatible. The word pagan, when applied to Rome, early possesses the significance charged with horror which the early Christian controversialists gave it. The Romans really were an atheistic and idolatrous people; not idolatrous with regard to images made of stone or bronze, but idolatrous with regard to themselves. It is this idolatry of self which they have bequeathed to us in the form of patriotism. — Simone Weil

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

I speak French, and I grew up with French, so my English is Franglais. — Corneille Ewango

The fire which seems extinguished often slumbers beneath the ashes. — Pierre Corneille

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

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

In recounting our woes, we often soothe them. — 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

He who has resolved to conquer or die is seldom conquered; such noble despair perishes with difficulty. — Pierre Corneille

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

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

Guess, if you can, and choose, if you dare. — Pierre Corneille

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

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

I joined the Wildlife Conservation Society, working there, in 1995, but I started working with them as a student in 1991. I was appointed as a teaching assistant at my university because I accomplished with honor. — Corneille Ewango

The man who pardons easily courts injury. — Pierre Corneille

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

The Pygmies rely on the forest for their very life. They know everything about finding and using plants, animal behavior, and forest survival. Working with these wonderful people has been incredibly valuable. — Corneille Ewango

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

If anyone wants to know what elephants are like, they are like people only more so. — Pierre Corneille

In the service of Caesar, everything is legitimate. — Pierre Corneille

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

It is commonly the personal character of a writer which gives him his public significance. It is not imparted by his genius. Napoleon said of Corneille, "Were he living I would make him a king;" but he did not read him. He read Racine, yet he said nothing of the kind of Racine. — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

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

"eL Seed" was inspired by the French play Le Cid by Pierre Corneille. It was seeing "Le Cid" coming from the Arabic name "el sayed," which means "the master, the man." So I called myself like that because I was 16; I said, "Yes, I'm the man." That's how it started. — EL Seed

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