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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
Every
Lies
Unerring
Never
Difference
Dwelt
Differences
Greece
Wisdom
Sage
Age
Folly
Lying
Spite
Show
Degree
Shows
Degrees

More quotes by Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux

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However big the fool, there is always a bigger fool to admire him.
Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux
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Everything that poverty touches becomes frightful.
Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux
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Nothing but truth is lovely, nothing fair.
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Now two punctilious envoys, Thine and Mine, Embroil the earth about a fancied line And, dwelling much on right and much on wrong, Prove how the right is chiefly with the strong.
Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux
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What is conceived well is expressed clearly.
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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A burlesque word is often a powerful sermon.
Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux
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Honor is like an island, rugged and without a beach once we have left it, we can never return.
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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Ignorance is always ready to admire itself. Procure yourself critical friends.
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.
Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux
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Of all the animals which fly in the air, walk on the land, or swim in the sea, from Paris to Peru, from Japan to Rome, the most foolish animal in my opinion is man.
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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He [Moliere] pleases all the world, but cannot please himself.
Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux
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No one who cannot limit himself has ever been able to write.
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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Gold lends a touch of beauty even to the ugly.
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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Whatever we well understand we express clearly, and words flow with ease.
Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux
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He who cannot limit himself will never know how to write.
Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux