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Of every four words I write, I strike out three.
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
Editing
Strike
Strikes
Four
Words
Write
Three
Writing
More quotes by Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux
No one who cannot limit himself has ever been able to write.
Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux
He [Moliere] pleases all the world, but cannot please himself.
Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux
Everything that poverty touches becomes frightful.
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
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
Every age has its pleasures, its style of wit, and its own ways.
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
Gold lends a touch of beauty even to the ugly.
Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux
When we envy another, we make their virtue our vice.
Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux
Praising an honest person who doesn't deserve it, always wounds them.
Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux
With poverty everything becomes frightful.
Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux
If your descent is from heroic sires, Show in your life a remnant of their fires.
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
However big the fool, there is always a bigger fool to admire him.
Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux
The dreadful burden of having nothing to do.
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
Let a single complete action, in one place and one day, keep the theatre packed to the last.
Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux
He who cannot limit himself will never know how to write.
Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux
Virtue alone is the unerring sign of a noble soul.
Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux
