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Ah, it's a lovely thing, to know a thing or two.

Molière

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Moliere. Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme [The Bourgeois Gentleman]. 14 Oct. 1670, The Court of Louis XIV, Château of Chambord, Chambord, Loir-et-Cher, France, act 2, sc. 4.

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Current Citation

Moliere. "The Bourgeois Gentleman." Tartuffe and The Bourgeois Gentleman. Dover Publications, 1998, act 2, sc. 4.

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There were never in the world two opinions alike, any more than two hairs or two grains. Their most universal quality is diversity.

Michel de Montaigne

Essays

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De Montaigne, Michel. "De la Ressemblance des Enfants aux Peres [Of the Resemblance of Children to Their Fathers]." Essais [Essays]. Paris: Simon Millanges and Jean Richer, 1580.

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Current Citation

De Montaigne, Michel. "On the Resemblance of Children to Their Fathers." The Complete Essays, edited and translated by M. A. Screech. Penguin Classics, 1993.

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Equality may perhaps be a right, but no power on earth can ever turn it into a fact.

Honoré de Balzac

La Comédie humaine

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De Balzac, Honoré. Ne touchez pas la hache [Don’t Touch the Axe]. L'Écho de la Jeune France, 1834.

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Within these limits, the power vested in American courts of justice, of pronouncing a statute to be unconstitutional, forms one of the most powerful barriers that has ever been devised against the tyranny of political assemblies.

Alexis de Tocqueville

Democracy in America

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Tocqueville, Alexis De. De La Democratie en Amerique [Democracy in America]. Vol. 1, London: Saunders and Otley, 1835, ch. 6.

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Tocqueville, Alexis De. Democracy in America: The Complete and Unabridged Volumes I and II, translated by Henry Reeve. Bantam Classics, 2000, vol. 1, ch. 6.

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Desire makes everything blossom; possession makes everything wither and fade.

Marcel Proust

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Proust, Marcel. Les Plaisirs et les Jours. Paris: Calmann-Lévy, 1896.

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Proust, Marcel. "Pleasures and Days." Pleasures and Days and "Memory" / Les Plaisirs et les Jours et "Souvenir" Short Stories by Marcel Proust: A Dual-Language Book, translated by Edward H. Ousselin. Dover Publications, 2014.

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People have declaimed against luxury for two thousand years, in verse and in prose, and people have always delighted in it.

Voltaire

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Voltaire [published anonymously]. "Luxe [Luxury]." Dictionnaire Philosophique Portatif. Geneva: Gabriel Grasset, 1764.

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Voltaire. "Luxury." Philosophical Dictionary, translated by Theodore Besterman. Penguin Classics, 1984.

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Of all human follies there's none could be greater
Than trying to render our fellow-men better.

Molière

The Misanthrope

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Molière. Le Misanthrope ou l'Atrabilaire amoureux [The Misanthrope, or the Cantankerous Lover]. King's Players, 4 June 1666, Théâtre du Palais-Royal, Paris, France, act 1, sc. 1.

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Current Citation

Moliere. "The Misanthrope." The Misanthrope, Tartuffe, and Other Plays, translated by Maya Slater. Oxford University Press, 2008, act 1, sc. 1.

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It is public scandal that constitutes offence, and to sin in secret is not to sin at all.

Molière

Tartuffe

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Moliere. Le Tartuffe ou l'Imposteur [Tartuffe or the Impostor]. 5 Feb. 1669, Théâtre du Palais-Royal, Paris, France, act 4, sc. 5.

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Moliere. "Tartuffe." The Misanthrope, Tartuffe, and Other Plays, translated by Maya Slater. Oxford University Press, 2008, act 4, sc. 5.

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I should like to be able to love my country and still love justice.

Albert Camus

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Camus, Albert. Letter to a German Friend. c. 1944.

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All events are linked together in the best of possible worlds; for, after all, if you had not been driven from a fine castle by being kicked in the backside for love of Miss Cunégonde, if you hadn’t been sent before the Inquisition, if you hadn’t traveled across America on foot, if you hadn’t given a good sword thrust to the baron, if you hadn’t lost all your sheep from the good land of Eldorado, you wouldn’t be sitting here eating candied citron and pistachios.

Voltaire

Candide

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Voltaire. Candide, ou l'Optimisme [Candide: or, All for the Best]. Geneva: Gabriel Cramer, 1759, ch. 30.

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Current Citation

Voltaire. Candide, edited by Nicholas Cronk. W. W. Norton & Company, 2016, ch. 30.

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All that is beautiful and noble is the result of reason and calculation.

Charles Baudelaire

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Baudelaire, Charles. "Éloge du maquillage [In Praise of Makeup]." The Painter of Modern Life. Paris: Le Figaro, c. 1863.

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Current Citation

Baudelaire, Charles. "The Painter of Modern Life." Baudelaire: Selected Writings on Art and Literature, translated by P. E. Charvet. Penguin Classics, 1993.

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What is beautiful is moral, that is all there is to it.

Gustave Flaubert

Letters of Gustave Flaubert

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Flaubert, Gustave. Letter to Guy de Maupassant. 16 Feb. 1880.

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Even in those cities which seem to enjoy the blessings of peace, and where the arts flourish, the inhabitants are devoured by envy, cares and anxieties, which are greater plagues than any experienced in a town when it is under siege.

Voltaire

Candide

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Voltaire. Candide, ou l'Optimisme [Candide: or, All for the Best]. Geneva: Gabriel Cramer, 1759, ch. 20.

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Voltaire. Candide, edited by Nicholas Cronk. W. W. Norton & Company, 2016, ch. 20.

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Property is theft.

Pierre-Joseph Proudhon

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Proudhon, Pierre-Joseph. Qu'est-ce que la propriété? Recherche sur le principe du droit et du gouvernement [What Is Property? Or, an Inquiry into the Principle of Right and Government]. Paris: 1840, preface.

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Current Citation

Proudhon, Pierre-Joseph. Proudhon: What is Property?, edited and translated by Donald R. Kelley and Bonnie G. Smith. Cambridge University Press, 1994, preface.

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Kill them all; for the Lord knoweth them that are His.

Arnaud Amalric

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Quoted in The Dialogue on Miracles

Statement prior to the massacre at Beziers, France on July 22, 1209, as part of the Albigensian Crusade.

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Arnaud Amalric. Quoted in The Dialogue on Miracles, written by Caesarius of Hesterbach. c. 1223.

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Arnaud Amalric. Quoted in The Dialogue on Miracles, written by Caesarius of Hesterbach, translated by Ronald Pepin. Vol. 1, Liturgical Press, 2023.

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The reading of good books is like a conversation with the best men of past centuries-in fact like a prepared conversation, in which they reveal only the best of their thoughts.

René Descartes

Discourse on Method

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Descartes, René [published anonymously]. Discours de la Méthode: Pour bien conduire sa raison, et chercher la vérité dans les sciences [Discourse on Method: To Conduct Reason Well, and Seek Truth in the Sciences]. Leiden, 1637, pt. 1.

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