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He who cannot limit himself will never know how to write.
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
Writing
Never
Limit
Limits
Write
Art
Cannot
More quotes by Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux
Virtue alone is the unerring sign of a noble soul.
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
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
When we envy another, we make their virtue our vice.
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
If your descent is from heroic sires, Show in your life a remnant of their fires.
Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux
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
Some excel in rhyme who reason foolishly.
Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux
All men are fools, and with every effort they differ only in the degree.
Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux
With poverty everything becomes frightful.
Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux
Let a single complete action, in one place and one day, keep the theatre packed to the last.
Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux
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
A warmed-up dinner was never worth much.
Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux
However big the fool, there is always a bigger fool to admire him.
Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux
What is conceived well is expressed clearly.
Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux
Every age has its pleasures, its style of wit, and its own ways.
Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux
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
Everything that poverty touches becomes frightful.
Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux
It is the sin which we have not committed which seems the most monstrous.
Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux
The wisest man is he who does not fancy that he is so at all.
Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux
