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Whatever we well understand we express clearly, and words flow with ease.
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
Wells
Ease
Well
Clearly
Express
Flow
Understanding
Whatever
Words
Understand
Oratory
More quotes by Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux
Every age has its pleasures, its style of wit, and its own ways.
Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux
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
It is the sin which we have not committed which seems the most monstrous.
Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux
If your descent is from heroic sires, Show in your life a remnant of their fires.
Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux
Gold lends a touch of beauty even to the ugly.
Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux
Greatest fools are the most often satisfied.
Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux
Ignorance is always ready to admire itself. Procure yourself critical friends.
Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux
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
Some excel in rhyme who reason foolishly.
Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux
A warmed-up dinner was never worth much.
Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux
Time flies and draws us with it. The moment in which I am speaking is already far from me.
Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux
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
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
However big the fool, there is always a bigger fool to admire him.
Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux
Nothing but truth is lovely, nothing fair.
Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux
All men are fools, and with every effort they differ only in the degree.
Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux
A burlesque word is often a powerful sermon.
Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux
The wisest man is he who does not fancy that he is so at all.
Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux
When we envy another, we make their virtue our vice.
Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux
What is conceived well is expressed clearly.
Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux
