Nicolas Boileau
Nicolas Boileau
Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux, often known simply as Boileau, was a French poet and critic...
exalted light rhyme treating whether
Whether one is treating a light or an exalted subject, let the sense and the rhyme always agree.
mason talent
Be a mason instead, if you have a talent for that.
dinner forget fresh heart worth
Take fresh heart and never forget that a warmed-up dinner is worth nothing at all.
evil fear leads
Often the fear of one evil leads us into a worse.
everywhere exposes good itself light offers says whether
Everywhere my thought offers and exposes itself to the light of day, and my verse, whether good or bad, always says something.
cease great shall winning
Great king, cease winning victories, or I shall give up writing.
wisdom men wisest-man
The wisest man is he who does not fancy that he is so at all.
happiness light graves
Happy who in his verse can gently steer From grave to light, from pleasant to severe.
age delight moral
But satire, ever moral, ever new, Delights the reader and instructs him, too. She, if good sense refine her sterling page, Oft shakes some rooted folly of the age.
world can-not please
He [Moliere] pleases all the world, but can- not please himself.
ignorance science admire
Ignorance is always ready to admire itself. Procure yourself critical friends.
truth air urgent
Truth has not such an urgent air.
wisdom humility learning
The wisest man is generally he who thinks himself the least so.
lovely truth-is fairs
Nothing but truth is lovely, nothing fair.