Inspirational Quotations

Inspirational Quotes by Moliere (French Playwright)

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

Virtue is the first title of nobility.
Moliere
Topics: Titles

Oh how fine it is to know a thing or two!
Moliere
Topics: Knowledge

People of quality know everything without ever having learned anything.
Moliere
Topics: Intelligence, Class

If you suppress grief too much, it can well redouble.
Moliere
Topics: Courage, Grief

A learned fool is more foolish than an ignorant one.
Moliere
Topics: Fools, Foolishness

It is the public scandal that offends; to sin in secret is no sin at all.
Moliere
Topics: Shame

We often marry in despair, so that we repent of it all our life after.
Moliere
Topics: Marriage

The more we love our friends, the less we flatter them; it is by excusing nothing that pure love shows itself.
Moliere
Topics: Candor, Friendship, Flattery

There is no praise to beat the sort you can put in your pocket.
Moliere
Topics: Praise

Hypocrisy is a fashionable vice, and all fashionable vices pass for virtue.
Moliere
Topics: Hypocrisy, Fashion

The mind has great influence over the body, and maladies often have their origin there.
Moliere
Topics: Health

Without knowledge, life is not more than the shadow of death.
Moliere
Topics: Knowledge

Grammar, which can govern even Kings.
Moliere

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

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

He must have killed a lot of men to have made so much money.
Moliere
Topics: Wealth, Riches

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

Unbroken happiness is a bore: It should have ups and downs.
Moliere
Topics: Happiness

A husband is a plaster that cures all the ills of girlhood.
Moliere
Topics: Marriage

Gold makes the ugly beautiful.
Moliere
Topics: Gold

Nothing can be fairer or more noble than the holy fervor of true zeal.
Moliere
Topics: Zeal

Men are alike in their promises. It is only in their deeds that they differ.
Moliere
Topics: Inaction, Procrastination, Getting Going

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

The impromptu reply is precisely the touchstone of the man of wit.
Moliere
Topics: Wit

Frenchmen have an unlimited capacity for gallantry and indulge it on every occasion.
Moliere
Topics: Nationality, Nations, Nation, Nationalism

Love is often the fruit of marriage.
Moliere
Topics: Marriage

It’s true Heaven forbids some pleasures, but a compromise can usually be found.
Moliere
Topics: Pleasure

One should eat to live, not live to eat.
Moliere
Topics: Food, Eating, One liners, Weight, Diet

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: Difficulties, Risk, Obstacles, One liners, Adversity, Opposition, Difficulty

Of all follies there is none greater than wanting to make the world a better place.
Moliere
Topics: Correction, Reform

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