Pierre Corneille Quotes

63 Sourced Quotes

True, I am young, but for souls nobly born
Valor doesn't await the passing of years.

Pierre Corneille
An impulsive action has never been classed as a crime.
In French: Un premier mouvement ne fut jamais un crime

Pierre Corneille
As great as kings may be, they are what we are: they can err like other men.

Pierre Corneille
Have others fear you, and I will have no fear.

Pierre Corneille
To conquer without risk is to triumph without glory.

Pierre Corneille
He who pardons easily invites offense.

Pierre Corneille
Heaven absolves all crimes committed to gain a throne Once Heaven gives it to us.

Pierre Corneille
Clemency is the noblest trait
Which can reveal a true monarch to the world.

Pierre Corneille
They were more than kings, now they are less than slaves.

Pierre Corneille
They who overcome their desires once can overcome them always.

Pierre Corneille
He who can live in infamy is unworthy of life.

Pierre Corneille
It is hard to hate what one has loved,
And a half-extinguished fire is soon relit.

Pierre Corneille
One is often guilty by being too just.

Pierre Corneille
We never taste a perfect joy;
Our happiest successes are mixed with sadness.

Pierre Corneille
A monarch must sometimes rule even himself: He who wants everything must risk very little.

Pierre Corneille
It takes a good memory to keep up a lie.

Pierre Corneille
A true king is neither husband nor father;
He considers his throne and nothing else.

Pierre Corneille
And the combat ceased for want of combatants.

Pierre Corneille
Ambition displeases when it has been sated... Having reached the peak, it aspires to descend.

Pierre Corneille
Your virtue raises your glory above your crime.

Pierre Corneille
My reason, it's true, controls my feelings,
But whatever its authority,
It doesn't rule them so much as tyrannize them.

Pierre Corneille
Guess if you can, choose if you dare.

Pierre Corneille
I can be forced to live without happiness,
But I will never consent to live without honor.

Pierre Corneille
The fire which seems extinguished often slumbers beneath the ashes.

Pierre Corneille
It is a crime against the State to be powerful enough to commit one.

Pierre Corneille
A service beyond all recompense
Weighs so heavy that it almost gives offense.

Pierre Corneille
The king, just and prudent, wants only those things which he can get.

Pierre Corneille
I love you much less than my God, but much more than myself.

Pierre Corneille
Desire increases when fulfillment is postponed.

Pierre Corneille
When there is no peril in the fight, there is no glory in the triumph.

Pierre Corneille