James Wood, comp. Dictionary of Quotations. 1899.
Boileau
A fool always finds a greater fool to admire him.
All men are fools, and with every effort they differ only in the degree.
Ces discours sont fort beaux dans un livre—All that would be very fine in a book, i.e., in theory, but not in practice.
Ceux qui parlent beaucoup, ne disent jamais rien—Those who talk much never say anything worth listening to.
Chaque âge a ses plaisirs, son esprit, et ses mœurs—Every age has its pleasures, its style of wit, and its peculiar manners.
Clear conception leads naturally to clear and correct expression.
Il plaît à tout le monde et ne saurait se plaire—He pleases all the world but cannot please himself.Of Molière.
J’évite d’être long, et je deviens obscur—In avoiding to be diffuse, I become obscure.After Horace.
J’appelle un chat un chat, et Rolet un fripon—I call a cat a cat, and Rolet a knave.
La docte antiquité est toujours vénérable, / Je ne la trouve pas cependant adorable—To the learning of antiquity I always pay due veneration, but I do not therefore adore it as sacred.
Le plus sage est celui qui ne pense point l’être—The wisest man is he who does not think he is so.
Le vrai peut quelquefois n’être pas vraisemble—What is true may sometimes seem unlike truth.
Nature always leaps to the surface, and manages to show what she is.
Pauvres gens, je les plains; car on a pour les fous / Plus de pitié que de courroux—Poor people, I pity them; for one always entertains for fools more pity than anger.On disappointed authors.
Pour soutenir les droits que le ciel autorise, / Abîme tout plutôt; c’est l’esprit de l’église—To maintain your rights granted by Heaven, let everything perish rather than yield; this is the spirit of the Church.
Qu’heureux est le mortel qui, du monde ignoré, / Vit content de soi-même en un coin retiré!—How happy the man who, unknown to the world, lives content with himself in some nook apart!
Qui ne sait se borner, ne sut jamais écrire—He who cannot limit himself will never know how to write.
Rien n’est beau que le vrai; le vrai seul est aimable—Nothing is beautiful but the true; the true alone is lovely.
Rien ne peut arrêter sa vigilante audace. / L’été na point de feux, l’hiver n’a point de glace—Nothing can check his watchful daring. For him the summer has no heat, the winter no ice.Of Louis XIV.
Tant de fiel entre-t-il dans l’âme des dévôts?—Can so much gall find access in devout souls?
Tel excelle à rimer qui juge sottement—Some excel in rhyme who reason foolishly.
Tel vous semble applaudir, qui vous raille et vous joue; / Aimez qu’on vous conseille, et non pas qu’on vous loue—Such a one seems to applaud, while he is really ridiculing you; attach yourself to those who advise you rather than to those who praise.
Tel, en vous lisant, admire chaque trait, / Qui dans le fond de l’âme vous craint et vous hait—Such a one, in reading your work, admires every line, but, at the bottom of his soul, he fears and hates you.
This 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.
Tous les hommes sont foux, et malgré tous leurs soins, / Ne diffèrent entr’eux, que du plus ou du moins—All men are fools, and notwithstanding all their care, they differ but in degree.
Tout éloge imposteur blesse une âme sincère—Praise undeservedly bestowed wounds an honest heart.
Tout doit tendre au bon sens: mais pour y parvenir / Le chemin est glissant et pénible a tenir—Everything ought to lead to good sense; but in order to attain to it, the road is slippery and difficult to walk in.
Un dîner réchauffé ne valut jamais rien—A dinner warmed up again was never worth anything.
Un fat quelque fois ouvre un avis important—A simpleton often suggests a significant bit of advice.
Un sot trouve toujours un plus sot qui l’admire—Every fool finds a greater to admire him.