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In spite of every sage whom Greece can show, Unerring wisdom never dwelt below Folly in all of every age we see, The only difference lies in the degree.

Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux

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Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux
Age: 75 †
Born: 1636
Born: January 1
Died: 1711
Died: January 1
Historian
Lawyer
Literary Critic
Poet
Writer
Paris
France
Boileau
Nicolas Boileau
Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux
Age
Folly
Lying
Spite
Show
Degree
Shows
Degrees
Every
Lies
Unerring
Never
Difference
Dwelt
Differences
Greece
Wisdom
Sage

More quotes by Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux

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Of all the creatures that creep, swim, or fly, Peopling the earth, the waters, and the sky, From Rome to Iceland, Paris to Japan, I really think the greatest fool is man.
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However big the fool, there is always a bigger fool to admire him.
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Greatest fools are the most often satisfied.
Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux
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Truth has not such an urgent air.
Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux
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A warmed-up dinner was never worth much.
Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux
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It is in vain a daring author thinks of attaining to the heights of Parnassus if he does not feel the secret influence of heaven and if his natal star has not formed him to be a poet.
Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux
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Every age has its pleasures, its style of wit, and its own ways.
Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux
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Nothing but truth is lovely, nothing fair.
Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux
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The wisest man is he who does not fancy that he is so at all.
Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux
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A burlesque word is often a powerful sermon.
Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux
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The world is full of fools and he who would not wish to see one, must not only shut himself up alone, but must also break his looking-glass.
Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux
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Gold gives an appearance of beauty even to ugliness: But with poverty everything becomes frightful.
Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux
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A proud bigot, who is vain enough to think that he can deceive even God by affected zeal, and throwing the veil of holiness over vices, damns all mankind by the word of his power.
Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux
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Hasten slowly, and without losing heart, put your work twenty times upon the anvil. [Fr., Hatez-vous lentement et, sans perdre courage, Vingt fois sur le metier remettez votre ouvrage.]
Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux
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Of every four words I write, I strike out three.
Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux
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It is the sin which we have not committed which seems the most monstrous.
Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux
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Who is content with nothing possesses all things.
Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux
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Virtue alone is the unerring sign of a noble soul.
Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux
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He [Moliere] pleases all the world, but cannot please himself.
Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux
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Sometimes a fool makes a good suggestion.
Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux