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
Long is the road from conception to completion.
—Moliere
Topics: Ideas
Unbroken happiness is a bore: It should have ups and downs.
—Moliere
Topics: Happiness
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
Grammar, which can govern even Kings.
—Moliere
People of quality know everything without ever having learned anything.
—Moliere
Topics: Intelligence, Class
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
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: Insults, Slander
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
Virtue is the first title of nobility.
—Moliere
Topics: Titles
Hypocrisy is a fashionable vice, and all fashionable vices pass for virtue
—Moliere
Topics: Hypocrisy, Fashion
A husband is a plaster that cures all the ills of girlhood.
—Moliere
Topics: Marriage
Those whose conduct gives room for talk are always the first to attack their neighbors.
—Moliere
Topics: Hypocrisy
The proof of true love is to be unsparing in criticism.
—Moliere
Topics: Romance
We often marry in despair, so that we repent of it all our life after.
—Moliere
Topics: Marriage
An erudite fool is a greater fool than an ignorant fool.
—Moliere
Topics: Fools
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
Frenchmen have an unlimited capacity for gallantry and indulge it on every occasion.
—Moliere
Topics: Nation, Nationalism, Nations, Nationality
Oh how fine it is to know a thing or two!
—Moliere
Topics: Knowledge
There is no rampart that will hold out against malice.
—Moliere
Topics: Hate
Our minds need relaxation and give way
Unless we mix with work a little play.
—Moliere
A wise man is superior to any insults which can be put upon him, and the best reply to unseemly behavior is patience and moderation.
—Moliere
Unreasonable haste is the direct road to error.
—Moliere
Topics: Haste
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: One liners, Opposition, Obstacles, Risk, Adversity, Difficulty, Difficulties
He must have killed a lot of men to have made so much money.
—Moliere
Topics: Riches, Wealth
Love is often the fruit of marriage.
—Moliere
Topics: Marriage
I always write a good first line, but I have trouble in writing the others.
—Moliere
Topics: Writers, Writing, Authors & Writing
Of all follies there is none greater than wanting to make the world a better place.
—Moliere
Topics: Correction, Reform
Men are alike in their promises. It is only in their deeds that they differ.
—Moliere
Topics: Procrastination, Inaction, Getting Going
Everyone has a right to his own course of action.
—Moliere
Topics: Aptness, Appropriateness
There is no praise to beat the sort you can put in your pocket.
—Moliere
Topics: Praise
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
It is the public scandal that offends; to sin in secret is no sin at all.
—Moliere
Topics: Shame
It is not only what we do, but also what we do not do for which we are accountable.
—Moliere
Topics: Responsibility, Doing, Sin
If you suppress grief too much, it can well redouble.
—Moliere
Topics: Courage, Grief
Birth is nothing where virtue is not.
—Moliere
Topics: Ancestry
Nothing can be fairer or more noble than the holy fervor of true zeal.
—Moliere
Topics: Zeal
One ought to look a good deal at oneself before thinking of condemning others.
—Moliere
Topics: Critics, Hypocrisy, Criticism, Thinking
The less we deserve good fortune, the more we hope for it.
—Moliere
Topics: Fortune, Fate
Without knowledge, life is not more than the shadow of death.
—Moliere
Topics: Knowledge
Consistency is only suitable for ridicule.
—Moliere
Topics: Change, Consistency
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