Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux
Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux
Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux, often known simply as Boileau, was a French poet and critic...
NationalityFrench
ProfessionPoet
Date of Birth1 November 1636
CountryFrance
rights yield support
To support those of your rights authorized by Heaven, destroy everything rather than yield; that is the spirit of the Church.
dinner eating
A warmed-up dinner was never worth much.
envy vices virtue
When we envy another, we make their virtue our vice.
evil
Often the fear on one evil leads us into a worse.
boredom speech tedious
That which is repeated too often becomes insipid and tedious.
fool satisfied
The greatest fools are oft the most satisfied.
soul noble virtue
Virtue alone is the unerring sign of a noble soul.
gay ease poet
Happy the poet who with ease can steer From grave to gay, from lively to severe. [Lat., Heureux qui, dans ses vers, sait d'une voix legere Passer du grave au doux, du plaisant au severe.]
practice twenties polish
Bring your work back to the workshop twenty times. Polish it continuously, and polish it again.
all-things
Who is content with nothing possesses all things.
sticks calumny
Something of calumny always sticks.
men effort fool
All men are fools, and with every effort they differ only in the degree.
stupidity fool bigger
However big the fool, there is always a bigger fool to admire him.
writing editing four
Of every four words I write, I strike out three.