Pierre Corneille (1606–84) was a French poet and dramatist, considered the creator of French classical tragedy. His tragedies typically explore the conflict between heroic love and devotion to duty. His heroes’ moral dilemmas are ambiguous; they have inspired divergent views of his meaning.
Born into a family of magistrates in Rouen in Normandy, Corneille studied law and practiced in Rouen until 1630, before turning to write plays. He moved to Paris in 1629, where his comedy Mélite (1629; Melite, 1776) proved highly successful. His La Galerie du Palais (1632) and La Place Royale (1633–34) are notable for their evocation of modern urban life and the love affairs of respectable young people.
Corneille also wrote tragicomedies, enjoying his first great success both in France and in England with Le Cid (1637.) After its unconventionality caused a scandal and elicited adverse judgment by the Académie Française, he rewrote it and called it a tragedy. Le Cid had a profound impact on French drama, especially in Corneille’s setting of intense psychological conflict.
Corneille’s other major tragedies were Horace (1640; Horatius, 1656,) Cinna (1640; Cinna’s Conspiracy, 1713) and Polyeucte (1642; Polyeuctes, 1655.) He produced a verse translation of Thomas a Kempis’s Imitatio Christi (1651.)
Corneille returned to the stage in 1659 with Oedipe, and in 1671 joined Molière and Philippe Quinault in writing the opera Psyché. His last works were Pulchérie (1672) and Suréna (1674; Surenas, 1969.) Corneille exerted a powerful influence on the English dramatists of the Restoration, specifically John Dryden and Charles Cotton.
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Pierre Corneille
Do your duty and leave the rest to the gods.
—Pierre Corneille
Topics: Duty
Every brave man is a man of his word.
—Pierre Corneille
Topics: Promise
Every brave man shuns, more than death, the shame of lying.
—Pierre Corneille
Topics: Lying
The manner of giving is worth more than the gift.
—Pierre Corneille
Topics: One liners, Giving, Charity, Gifts
He on whom Heaven confers a sceptre knows not the weight till he bears it.
—Pierre Corneille
Topics: Kings
Flee an enemy who knows your weakness.
—Pierre Corneille
Topics: Weakness
The man who pardons easily, courts injury.
—Pierre Corneille
I have deserved neither so much honor or so much disgrace.
—Pierre Corneille
Topics: Honor
Those who easily forgive invite offenses.
—Pierre Corneille
Topics: Forgiveness
Love is a tyrant sparing none.
—Pierre Corneille
Topics: Love
Happiness seems made to be shared.
—Pierre Corneille
Topics: Happiness
The secret of giving affectionately is great and rare; it requires address to do it well; otherwise we lose instead of deriving benefit from it.
—Pierre Corneille
Topics: Gifts
Peace is produced by war.
—Pierre Corneille
Topics: Peace
One ought to have a good memory when he has told a lie.
—Pierre Corneille
Force is legitimate where gentleness avails not.
—Pierre Corneille
Topics: Power
To conquer without risk is to triumph without glory.
—Pierre Corneille
Topics: Risk, Difficulties, Winning, Win, Adversity, Endurance, Entrepreneurs, Risk-taking
One often calms one’s grief by recounting it.
—Pierre Corneille
Topics: Grief, Grieving
A first impulse was never a crime.
—Pierre Corneille
Topics: Crime
Generosity is toe accompaniment of high birth; pity and gratitude are its attendants.
—Pierre Corneille
Topics: Generosity
To take revenge halfheartedly is to court disaster: Either condemn or crown your hatred.
—Pierre Corneille
Topics: Revenge
It is the crime not the scaffold which is the disgrace.
—Pierre Corneille
Topics: Punishment
A victory without danger is a triumph without glory.
—Pierre Corneille
Topics: Danger, Victory
When heaven half opens its arms, he who is faint-hearted deserves not anything. It is this want of faith that often keeps heaven from bestowing its blessings; and even when they come down, it is apt to send them away.
—Pierre Corneille
Topics: Opportunity
Every man of courage is a man of his word.
—Pierre Corneille
Topics: Courage
Among wellborn spirits courage does not depend on age.
—Pierre Corneille
Topics: Courage
We never enjoy perfect happiness; our most fortunate successes are mingled with sadness; some anxieties always perplex the reality of our satisfaction.
—Pierre Corneille
Topics: Unhappiness, Perfection, Happiness, Realistic Expectations
Just vengeance does not call for punishment.
—Pierre Corneille
Topics: Revenge, One liners, Vengeance
Danger breeds best on too much confidence.
—Pierre Corneille
Topics: Danger, Confidence
A liar is always lavish of oaths.
—Pierre Corneille
Topics: Promises
Justice advances with such languid steps that crime often escapes from its slowness. Its tardy and doubtful course causes many tears to be shed.
—Pierre Corneille
Topics: Justice
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