17th-century Novelist Quotes

Pierre de Marivaux

Samuel Richardson

Madame de La Fayette

Alain-René Lesage

To be a clergyman, and all that is compassionate and virtuous, ought to be the same thing.

Samuel Richardson

Mutual content is like a river, which must have its banks on either side.

Alain-René Lesage

Welcome, brave Hero, to this course Retreat,
Thou who excell'st whatever Rome call'd great;
Great as thou art, yet others of thy Name
Shall thee transcend in martial Acts and Fame.
Two shall their Names from Africa receive,
As Asia did to thee thy Glories give.

In this world, you must be a bit too kind in order to be kind enough.

Pierre de Marivaux

One reproaches a lover, but can one reproach a husband, when his only fault is that he no longer loves?

Madame de La Fayette

How many brave Men, courageous Women, and innocent Children did I see butcher'd, to do God good Service?... I went to the Irish Rebellion, where I saw more than three hundred thousand Souls murder'd in cold Blood.crying, Nits will become Lice, destroy Root and Branch: with a thousand other Barbarities, too tedious as well as too dreadful to repeat, beside what has been transacted abroad.