Pierre Quotes & Sayings

People who share the same language, French or Chinese or whatever, have the same vocal cords and emit sounds which are basically the same, as they come from the same throats and lungs. — Pierre Schaeffer

Only way to eliminate the element of surprise is to know yourself and now your adversary. — Georges St-Pierre

Those seven years in the cloister were the key to my life. — Abbe Pierre

Berthe Morisot was a painter full of eighteenth-century delicacy and grace; in a word, the last elegant and 'feminine' artists since Fragonard. — Pierre-Auguste Renoir

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 not a scientific proposition to determine that some cultures lack political power because they show nothing similar to what is found in our culture. It is instead the sign of a certain conceptual poverty. — Pierre Clastres

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

I carried this problem around in my head basically the whole time. I would wake up with it first thing in the morning, I would be thinking about it all day, and I would be thinking about it when I went to sleep. Without distraction I would have the same thing going round and round in my mind.
(Recalling the degree of focus and determination that eventually yielded the proof of Fermat's Last Theorem.) — Andrew John Wiles

I think we have to realize that Canada is not immortal. But if it is going to go, let it go with a bang rather than a whimper. — Pierre Trudeau

Sometimes he remembered having heard how soldiers under fire in the trenches, and having nothing to do, try hard to find some occupation the more easily to bear the danger. It seemed to Pierre that all men were like those soldiers, seeking refuge from life: some in ambition, some in cards, some in framing laws, some in women, some in playthings, some in horses, some in politics, some in sport, some in wine, and some in government service. 'Nothing is without consequence, and nothing is important: it's all the same in the end. The thing to do is to save myself from it all as best I can,' thought Pierre. Not to see IT, that terrible IT. — Leo Tolstoy

The notion of anarchy ... means that once industrial functions have taken over from political functions, then business transactions and exchange alone produce the social order. — Pierre-Joseph Proudhon

We add that it would be all too easy to object that mutations have no evolutionary effect because they are eliminated by natural selection. Lethal mutations (the worst kind) are effectively eliminated, but others persist as alleles ... Mutants are present within every population, from bacteria to man. There can be no doubt about it. But for the evolutionist, the essential lies elsewhere: in the fact that mutations do not coincide with evolution. — Pierre-Paul Grasse

To Napoleon on why his works on celestial mechanics make no mention of God: Your Highness, I have no need of this hypothesis. — Pierre-Simon Laplace

When I finish with one thing very well, I start some other thing. I don't like to stop. I like to continually prove myself. — Pierre Cardin

Noises have generally been thought of as indistinct, but this is not true. — Pierre Schaeffer

Every State which breaks the equilibrium in its own favor only causes the other States to combine against it, and thereby diminishes its influence and power. — Pierre-Joseph Proudhon

Force is legitimate where gentleness avails not. — Pierre Corneille

To our critical eyes, the threads of which the past is woven are, by nature, endless and indivisible. Scientifically speaking, we cannot grasp the absolute beginning of anything: everything extends backwards to be prolonged by something else. — Pierre Teilhard De Chardin

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

I would rather worry without need than live without heed. — Pierre Beaumarchais

Is evolution a theory, a system, or an hypothesis? It is much more: it is a general condition to which all theories, all hypotheses, all systems must bow and which they must satisfy henceforward if they are to be thinkable and true. — Pierre Teilhard De Chardin

The attainment of of a just society is the cherished hope of civilized men. — Pierre Trudeau

In documentaries, you're confronted with reality; you can not manipulate or move it. — Jean-Pierre Dardenne

Communism is inequality, but not as property is. Property is exploitation of the weak by the strong. Communism is exploitation of the strong by the weak. — Pierre-Joseph Proudhon

The advice of friends must be received with a judicious reserve; we must not give ourselves up to it and follow it blindly, whether right or wrong. — Pierre Charron

When I see the cultural diversity that exists today, I feel that we must defend it, and we need Europe, because otherwise we are going to live in a society with a single model, the Anglo-American model. — Jean-Pierre Raffarin

O my God, how happy should I be to hear from Thy lips those words which Thou didst once address to Saint Thomas of Aquin: Thou hast spoken well of Me, Pierre! — Peter Julian Eymard

God is inexhaustibly attainable in the totality of our action. — Pierre Teilhard De Chardin

Using your imagination to create mental images stimulates your mind, helps organize your life and keeps your focus in a particular direction. It allows your unconscious mind to work toward the image you have created, the goal. It's about understand the life you want to live, and seeing it unfold before you. — Georges St-Pierre

The new frontier lies not beyond the planets but within each one of us. — Pierre Trudeau

When you don't know what to expect, prepare for the unexpected. — Pierre Omidyar

You would be very ashamed if you knew what the experiences you call setbacks, upheavals, pointless disturbances, and tedious annoyances really are. You would realize that your complaints about them are nothing more nor less than blasphemies - though that never occurs to you. Nothing happens to you except by the will of God, and yet [God's] beloved children curse it because they do not know it for what it is. — Jean-Pierre De Caussade

I've always loved black, and I realized that, from the beginning, man went into completely dark caves to paint. They painted with black too. They could have painted with white because there were white stones all over the ground, but no, they chose to paint with black in the dark. — Pierre Soulages

People who try to create a musical revolution do not have a chance, but those who turn their back to music can sometimes find it. — Pierre Schaeffer

Paradise is open to all kind hearts. — Pierre-Jean De Beranger

You don't need to sleep with more men to gain more experience. You need to wake up and understand that practicing with different teams every time won't make you perfect for one team. The team you need practice with is the team you're guaranteed to be on forever. Get the ring first, then, get to practicing. — Pierre Alex Jeanty

You must love yourself first to the soul of your aura. — Jennifer Pierre

Whoever lays his hand on me to govern me is a usurper and tyrant, and I declare him my enemy. — Pierre-Joseph Proudhon

Imagine the spirit as a mansion. You'll guess we don't use many rooms. Apart from a few moments in childhood we don't dance around it in sunlight. But there's a traffic of things in and out, and what happens is that unwanted bulks can gather inside. Gather and gather, menacing us. Unable to shift them, we hide in ever-smaller spaces. And in our last hole, life offers a choice: to play out our demise in parallel theatres - psychosis, zealotry, religion, cancer, addiction - or to bow quietly out. But beware: life doesn't ask these high questions when we're confident and fresh - it waits for hopelessness. — D.B.C. Pierre

As a result of changes which, over the last century, have modified our empirically based pictures of the world and hence the moral value of many of its elements, the "human religious ideal" inclines to stress certain tendencies and to express itself in terms which seem, at first sight, no longer to coincide with the "christian religious ideal". — Pierre Teilhard De Chardin

It's magnificent, but it's not war. — Pierre Bosquet

Success is born out of arrogance, but greatness comes from humility. — Marco Pierre White

One who has lost confidence can lose nothing more. — Pierre-Claude-Victor Boiste

The important thing is that all stages from adolescent to mature man, work is done to spread the sporting spirit. — Pierre De Coubertin

I believe a constitution can permit the co-existence of several cultures and ethnic groups with a single state. — Pierre Trudeau

Pornography is certainly more beautiful than eroticism. Eroticism is ugly. Eroticism is an ideology... there is nothing more boring than eroticism, it's worse than poetry, even. I say three cheers for pornography. — Pierre Guyotat

I would like to express the thoughts of a man who, having finally penetrated the partitions and ceilings of little countries, little coteries, little sects, rises above all these categories and finds himself a child and citizen of the Earth. — Pierre Teilhard De Chardin

It's the honest point of view of an artist: You have to please.I'd like viewers to come away from my films unsure whether they've understood them. I want to leave them wondering. — Jean-Pierre Melville

After grief, all that remains is barren. — Pierre Lemaitre

The earth was probably born by accident; but, in accordance with one of the most general laws of evolution, scarcely had this accident happened than it was immediately made use of and recast into something naturally directed. — Pierre Teilhard De Chardin

I always admired very much the virtuosity in Strauss because, really, he's a master of using the orchestra. And I like virtuosity, I must say, even if the taste of the music is not always mine. — Pierre Boulez

Haven't you realized that pleasure, which is indeed certainly the one and only reason for the two sexes to come together, is nevertheless not enough to establish a relationship between them? And that though this pleasure is preceded by desire which draws people together, it is however followed by aversion which pushes them apart? It's a law of nature which only love can change. Can we feel love whenever we want? Yet love is always needed, which would be a dreadfully tiresome thing if it hadn't fortunately been realized that it's enough for just one of the partners to feel it, thereby halving the problem, and without even incurring any great loss; in fact, one party is happy to love, the other to please, which is actually a bit less exciting but which can be combined with the pleasure of deceiving and that evens things out, so everyone's happy. — Pierre-Ambroise Choderlos De Laclos

By doubting we come to the question, and by questioning we may come upon the truth. — Pierre Abelard

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

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

POSTNot a head stands out A finger rises Then it is the voice that one knows A signal a brief note A man leaves Up above a cloud that passes by No one goes in And the night keeps its secret — Pierre Reverdy

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

Love is a seed that has to be watered with effort and consistency. Lack thereof will cause the fire that once existed between two souls to burn out. — Pierre Alex Jeanty

I consider that women who are authors, lawyers, and politicians are monsters. — Pierre-Auguste Renoir

I had wished to find in philosophy and religion a remedy for my disgrace; I searched out an asylum to secure me from love ... duty, reason and decency, which upon other occasions have some power over me, are here useless. The Gospel is a language I do not understand when it opposes my passion ... but when love has once been sincere how difficult it is to determine to love no more! 'Tis a thousand times more easy to renounce the world than love. I hate this deceitful, faithless world; I think no more of it ... — Pierre Abelard

All religions are pieced together out of elements which seem so at odds with reason that any intelligence laughs at them. — Pierre Charron

America Held Hostage won 24 Emmys for ABC News, but someone forgot to include my name on the list of people responsible for the show. — Pierre Salinger

The Church is like a great tree whose roots must be energetically anchored in the earth while its leaves are serenely exposed to the bright sunlight. In this way, she sums up a whole gamut of beats in a single living and all-embracing act, each one of which corresponds to a particular degree or a possible form of spiritualisation. — Pierre Teilhard De Chardin

The most satisfying thing in life is to have been able to give a large part of one's self to others. — Pierre Teilhard De Chardin

I do not exactly remember at what period I started my museum which absorbed so much of my time. — Pierre Loti

A country, after all, is not something you build as the pharaohs built the pyramids, and then leave standing there to defy eternity. A country is something that is built every day out of certain basic shared values. — Pierre Trudeau

Love is the most universal, the most tremendous and the most mysterious of the cosmic forces. — Pierre Teilhard De Chardin

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

A golf course is for golf. A tennis court is for tennis. A prison camp is for escaping. — Pierre Fresnay

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

Love is the affinity which links and draws together the elements of the world ... Love, in fact, is the agent of universal synthesis. — Pierre Teilhard De Chardin

I've had at least my share of tragedy, but I have had far more than my share of happiness. — Pierre Salinger

The newspapers are the cemeteries of ideas. — Pierre-Joseph Proudhon

It's not always the strong that survive. It takes brains, guts, tolerance and forward thinking. — Georges St-Pierre

Property is theft! — Pierre-Joseph Proudhon

When they are 50 yards from Parliament Hill, they are no longer honourable members, they are just nobodies. — Pierre Trudeau

Fear is the genesis of most of the good things that have occurred in my life. Fear is the beginning of every success I've lived. — Georges St-Pierre

The purpose is to become the best writer in my category (yes, page for page and pound for pound). — Georges St-Pierre

Be commonplace and creeping and you'll be a success. — Pierre Beaumarchais

Gastronomy is the greatest form of therapy that anyone can be exposed to. — Marco Pierre White

Gaily! gaily! close our ranks! Arm! Advance! Hope of France! Gaily! gaily! closed our ranks! Onward! Onward! Gauls and Franks! — Pierre-Jean De Beranger

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

Pierre looked into the sky, into the depths of the retreating, twinkling stars. "And all this is mine, and all this is in me, and all this is me!" thought Pierre. "And all this they've caught and put in a shed and boarded it up! — Leo Tolstoy

What seems most significant to me about our movement [Impressionism] is that we have freed painting from the importance of the subject. I am at liberty to paint flowers and call them flowers, without their needing to tell a story. — Pierre-Auguste Renoir

Obedience is a hard profession. — Pierre Corneille

Every trait of beauty may be referred to some virtue, as to innocence, candor, generosity, modesty, or heroism. St. Pierre To cultivate the sense of the beautiful, is one of the most effectual ways of cultivating an appreciation of the divine goodness. — Christian Nestell Bovee

The politicians, who once stated that war was too complex to be left to the generals, now act as though peace were too complex to be left to themselves. — Pierre Trudeau

The machine not only does it relieve us mechanically of a crushing weight of physical and mental labor; but by the miraculous enhancing of our senses, through its powers of enlargement, penetration and exact measurement, it constantly increases the scope and clarity of our perceptions. It fulfills the dream of all living creatures by satisfying our instinctive craving for the maximum of consciousness with a minimum of effort! Having embarked upon so profitable a path, how can Mankind fail to pursue it? — Pierre Teilhard De Chardin

I remember thinking that walking on the beach as a free man is pretty desirable. — Pierre Trudeau

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

Wise men mingle mirth with their cares, as a help either to forget or overcome them; but to resort to intoxication for the ease of one's mind is to cure melancholy by madness. — Pierre Charron

Driven by the forces of love, the fragments of the world seek each other so that the world may come to being. — Pierre Teilhard De Chardin

Growing old is like being increasingly penalized for a crime you haven't committed. — Pierre Teilhard De Chardin

A country like France now does two-thirds of its trade within the euro zone. — Jean-Pierre Raffarin

At the heart of daily punishment and sufferings, in the very wheels of encroaching mediocrity, are found both the keys and the doors to inner worlds. — Jean-Pierre Turmel

Some mathematics problems look simple, and you try them for a year or so, and then you try them for a hundred years, and it turns out that they're extremely hard to solve. There's no reason why these problems shouldn't be easy, and yet they turn out to be extremely intricate. [Fermat's] Last Theorem is the most beautiful example of this. — Andrew John Wiles

The present moment holds infinite riches beyond your wildest dreams. — Jean-Pierre De Caussade

Certainly I was a bully. I'm not ashamed of it at all. The hostility of the establishment to what you were able to do in the Forties and Fifties was very strong. Sometimes you have to fight against your society. — Pierre Boulez

Italy. 'I must use my freedom while I feel so much strength and youth in me,' he said to himself. 'Pierre was right when he said we must believe in the possibility of happiness in order to be happy, and now I do believe in it. Let the dead bury their dead, but while there is life we must live and be happy!' thought he. — Leo Tolstoy

I do like to fly under the radar. When I walk around town, the only people I want to recognise me and call me by my name are the folks at Starbucks. — Pierre Omidyar