A biography for Molierehasn’t been written yet.
“People of quality know everything without ever having learned anything.”
“It is a strange enterprise to make respectable people laugh.”
“I have the knack of easing scruples.”
“Esteem must be founded on preference: to hold everyone in high esteem is to esteem nothing.”
“Oh, how fine it is to know a thing or two.”
“I prefer a pleasant vice to an annoying virtue.”
“If everyone were clothed with integrity, if every heart were just, frank, kindly, the other virtues would be well-nigh useless.”
“Writing is like prostitution. First you do it for love, and then for a few close friends, and then for money.”
“All which is not prose is verse; and all which is not verse is prose.”
“I live on good soup, not on fine words.”
“I have the fault of being a little more sincere than is proper.”
“Solitude terrifies the soul at twenty.”
“As the purpose of comedy is to correct the vices of men, I see no reason why anyone should be exempt.”
“Don't appear so scholarly, pray. Humanize your talk, and speak to be understood.”
“If you suppress grief too much, it can well redouble.”
“True, Heaven prohibits certain pleasures; but one can generally negotiate a compromise.”
“There's nothing quite like tobacco: it's the passion of decent folk, and whoever lives without tobacco doesn't deserve to live.”
“One should eat to live, not live to eat.”
“There is no praise to bear the sort that you put in your pocket.”
“It is not only for what we do that we are held responsible, but also for what we do not do.”