Inspirational Quotations

Inspirational Quotes by Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux (French Literary Critic)

Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux (1636–1711) was a French poet and a leading literary critic of his day. He revitalized literary debates in Paris and effected a significant influence on French literature and drama. He is known mainly for defending the Classical standards in both French and English literature.

Born in Paris, Boileau was the fifteenth child of a Parisian government scribe and the younger brother of the translator and man of letters Gilles Boileau. Nicolas was educated at the Collège de Beauvais, and was then sent to study theology at the Sorbonne. He switched to law, was called to the bar, but soon ended his profession in protest against the deception, which passed under the name of law and justice.

After his father died and left him a small fortune, Boileau devoted himself to letters. His Satires (1660–1708) established his literary reputation. His acceptance in the circle of President Lamoignon, the leader of the Parisian Parlement, gave him appropriate social status.

A leading literary critic, Boileau recognized early the talents of Molière, Jean Racine, and Jean de La Fontaine. Influenced by Horace, he wrote poetic epistles and a didactic treatise in verse L’art poétique (1674, The Art of Poetry.) This four-canto poem set Boileau apart not by the theoretical argument of the content, but also by the sharp, concise phrases that recapitulate concepts examined previously by other literary critics.

Boileau’s mock-epic Le Lutrin (1674–83, The Lectern) was widely influential in England; it influenced how English Augustan poets Samuel Johnson, John Dryden, Alexander Pope, and John Oldham rephrased the great Latin poets.

In 1677, Boileau was appointed historiographer royal. He returned to literary criticism in 1692 and wrote his antifeminist satire Contre les femmes (1694, “Against Women”) followed by Sur l’amour de Dieu (1698, “On the Love of God.”)

More: Wikipedia READ: Works by Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux

Greatest fools are the most often satisfied.
Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux
Topics: Fools, Foolishness

When we envy another, we make their virtue our vice.
Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux
Topics: Envy

Honor is like an island, rugged and without a landing-place; we can nevermore re-enter when we are once outside of it.
Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux
Topics: Honor

Of every four words I write, I strike out three.
Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux

The wisest man is generally he who thinks himself the least so.
Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux
Topics: Wisdom

A fool always finds a greater fool to admire him.
Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux

Silence is the understanding of fools, and one of the virtues of the wise.
Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux
Topics: Silence

Every fool finds a greater one to admire them.
Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux
Topics: Fools, Admiration, Foolishness

There is but one road to lead us to God—humility; all other ways would only lead astray, even were they fenced in with all virtues.
Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux
Topics: Humility

Hasten slowly, and without losing heart put your work twenty times upon the anvil.
Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux
Topics: Perseverance

Who is content with nothing possesses all things.
Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux
Topics: Blessings, Appreciation, Gratitude

Trouble rides behind and gallops with him.
Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux
Topics: Trouble

However big the fool, there is always a bigger fool to admire him.
Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux
Topics: Fools, Foolishness

Some excel in rhyme who reason foolishly.
Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux
Topics: Reason

Brimful of learning, see the pedant stride, bristling with horrid Greek, and puffed with pride!—A thousand authors he in vain has read, and with their maxims stuffed his empty head; and thinks that without Aristotle’s rules, reason is blind, and common sense a fool!
Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux

Attach yourself to those who advise you rather than praise you.
Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux
Topics: Praise

How often the fear of one evil leads into a worse.
Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux
Topics: Fear, Anxiety

The wisest man is he who does not fancy that he is so at all.
Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux
Topics: Wisdom

Praising an honest person who doesn’t deserve it, always wounds them.
Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux
Topics: Praise

What is conceived well is expressed clearly.
Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux
Topics: Simplicity

The world is full of fools; and he who would not wish to see one, must not only shut himself up alone, but must also break his looking-glass.
Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux
Topics: Foolishness, Fools

If your descent is from heroic sires, show in your life a remnant of their fires.
Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux
Topics: Ancestors, Ancestry

A warmed-up dinner was never worth much.
Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux
Topics: Eating

No one who cannot limit himself has ever been able to write.
Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux
Topics: Authors & Writing, Writers, Writing

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