Jean Racine
Jean Racine
Jean Racine, baptismal name Jean-Baptiste Racine, was a French dramatist, one of the three great playwrights of 17th-century France, and an important literary figure in the Western tradition. Racine was primarily a tragedian, producing such "examples of neoclassical perfection" as Phèdre, Andromaque, and Athalie, although he did write one comedy, Les Plaideurs, and a muted tragedy, Esther, for the young...
NationalityFrench
ProfessionPlaywright
Date of Birth22 December 1639
CountryFrance
Crime, like virtue, has its degrees.
The quarrels of lovers are the renewal of love.
None love, but they who wish to love.
And forever goodbye! Forever! Oh, Sir, can you imagine how dreadful this cruel word sounds when one loves?
I will die if I lose you, but I will die if I wait longer.
Love is not dumb. The heart speaks many ways.
The heart that can no longer love passionately must with fury hate.
A noble heart cannot suspect in others the pettiness and malice that it has never felt.
A tragedy need not have blood and death; it's enough that it all be filled with that majestic sadness that is the pleasure of tragedy.
The joys of the evil flow away like a torrent.
Extreme justice is often injustice.
Love is not a fire to be shut up in a soul. Everything betrays us: voice, silence, eyes; half-covered fires burn all the brighter.
There are no secrets that time does not reveal.
Often it is fatal to live too long.