Jean-Baptiste Poquelin (1622–73,) known by his stage name Molière, was a French playwright and actor who is considered the creator of modern French comedy.
Born Jean-Baptiste Poquelin in Paris, Molière declined to join his father’s carpet and upholstery business as a young man. He fled with an actress and her family’s wandering theater troupe. They toured all around the provinces with great success, but kept away from Paris; Molière had been previously imprisoned there for large debts for which he became responsible. When they did return to Paris eventually, Molière tried to win the king’s favor by presenting a tragedy, but Molière received bad reviews for his acting.
Molière found success only when he performed his short farce, Love Is the Doctor. King Louis XIV became a champion of Molière’s work, and even performed as a ballet dancer in one of them.
Molière’s popular plays include the original stage comedies The School for Wives (1662,) Don Juan (1665,) Tartuffe (1666,) The Misanthrope (1666,) The Miser (1668,) The Bourgeois Gentleman (1670,) and The Imaginary Invalid (1673.)
Molière’s works gained widespread success with the public, even if they were criticized by conservative reviewers, the Catholic church, and medical professionals. Other playwrights and theater troupes copied his theatrical style in France and England.
The French national theater, the Comédie-Française, has been popularly known as “La Maison de Molière” (The House of Molière.)
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Moliere
Birth is nothing where virtue is not.
—Moliere
Topics: Ancestry
According to the saying of an ancient philosopher, one should eat to live, and not live to eat
—Moliere
Topics: Philosophy
Gold makes the ugly beautiful.
—Moliere
Topics: Gold
Frenchmen have an unlimited capacity for gallantry and indulge it on every occasion.
—Moliere
Topics: Nations, Nationalism, Nation, Nationality
If you suppress grief too much, it can well redouble.
—Moliere
Topics: Grief, Courage
Consistency is only suitable for ridicule.
—Moliere
Topics: Consistency, Change
The most agreeable recompense which we can receive for things which we have done is to see them known, to have them applauded with praises which honor us.
—Moliere
Topics: Praise
A husband is a plaster that cures all the ills of girlhood.
—Moliere
Topics: Marriage
The greater the obstacle, the more glory we have in overcoming it; the difficulties with which we are met are the maids of honor which set off virtue.
—Moliere
Topics: Opposition, Obstacles, One liners, Difficulty, Risk, Adversity, Difficulties
No one is safe from slander. The best way is to pay no attention to it, but live in innocence and let the world talk.
—Moliere
Topics: Slander, Insults
It is a fine seasoning for joy to think of those we love.
—Moliere
Topics: Joy
There is no praise to beat the sort you can put in your pocket.
—Moliere
Topics: Praise
To live without loving is not really to live.
—Moliere
Topics: Love
The more we love our friends, the less we flatter them; it is by excusing nothing that pure love shows itself.
—Moliere
Topics: Friendship, Candor, Flattery
A learned fool is more foolish than an ignorant one.
—Moliere
Topics: Foolishness, Fools
I always write a good first line, but I have trouble in writing the others.
—Moliere
Topics: Writers, Authors & Writing, Writing
People of quality know everything without ever having learned anything.
—Moliere
Topics: Intelligence, Class
Unbroken happiness is a bore: It should have ups and downs.
—Moliere
Topics: Happiness
Of all follies there is none greater than wanting to make the world a better place.
—Moliere
Topics: Reform, Correction
It is not only for what we do that we are held responsible, but also for what we do not do.
—Moliere
Topics: Doing Your Best
Love is often the fruit of marriage.
—Moliere
Topics: Marriage
Every good act is charity. A man’s true wealth hereafter is the good that he does in this world to his fellows.
—Moliere
Topics: Charity
Hypocrisy is a fashionable vice, and all fashionable vices pass for virtue
—Moliere
Topics: Fashion, Hypocrisy
We should conform to the manners of the greater number, and so behave as not to draw attention to ourselves.—Excess either way shocks, and every wise man should attend to this in his dress as well as language; never be affected in anything, but follow, without being in too great haste, the changes of fashion.
—Moliere
Topics: Fashion
The proof of true love is to be unsparing in criticism.
—Moliere
Topics: Romance
The art of flatterers is to take advantage of the foibles of the great, to foster their errors, and never to give advice which may annoy.
—Moliere
Topics: Flattery
One ought to look a good deal at oneself before thinking of condemning others.
—Moliere
Topics: Criticism, Hypocrisy, Critics, Thinking
The impromptu reply is precisely the touchstone of the man of wit.
—Moliere
Topics: Wit
I prefer an interesting vice to a virtue that bores.
—Moliere
Topics: Vice
Nothing can be fairer or more noble than the holy fervor of true zeal.
—Moliere
Topics: Zeal
We always speak well when we manage to be understood.
—Moliere
Topics: Communication
Grammar, which can govern even Kings.
—Moliere
The mind has great influence over the body, and maladies often have their origin there.
—Moliere
Topics: Health
Virtue is the first title of nobility.
—Moliere
Topics: Titles
It is not only what we do, but also what we do not do for which we are accountable.
—Moliere
Topics: Responsibility, Sin, Doing
Men are alike in their promises. It is only in their deeds that they differ.
—Moliere
Topics: Getting Going, Inaction, Procrastination
Long is the road from conception to completion.
—Moliere
Topics: Ideas
Haste is not always speed. We must learn to work and wait. This is like God, who perfects his works through beautiful gradations.
—Moliere
Topics: Haste
If everyone were clothed with integrity, if every heart were just, frank, kindly, the other virtues would be well-nigh useless, since their chief purpose is to make us bear with patience the injustice of our fellows.
—Moliere
There’s nothing quite like tobacco: it’s the passion of decent folk, and whoever lives without tobacco doesn’t deserve to live.
—Moliere
Topics: Smoking
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