Jean Racine Quotes

A benefit cited by way of reproach is equivalent to an injury.

Sun, I come to see you for the last time.

Can a faith that does nothing be called sincere?

Les te moins sont fort chers, et n'en a pas qui veut. Witnesses are expensive and not everyone can afford them.

On the throne, one has many worries; and remorse is the one that weighs the least.

I will die if I lose you, but I will die if I wait longer.

Pain is unjust, and all the arguments That cannot soothe it only rouse suspicion.

There is nothing so easy but that it becomes difficult when you do it with reluctance.

A noble heart cannot suspect in others the pettiness and malice that it has never felt.

You feign guilt in order to justify yourself.

To repair the irreparable ravages of time.

When I'm carried away, isn't it clear that my heart contradicts my mouth?

She wavers, she hesitates: in a word, she is a woman.

My only hope lies in my despair.

He who laughs on Friday will weep on Sunday.

Crime, like virtue, has its degrees.

And do you count for nothing God who fights for us?

The joys of the evil flow away like a torrent.

The quarrels of lovers are the renewal of love.

Love is not dumb. The heart speaks many ways.

Without money honor is merely a disease.

By dying I wanted to maintain my honor, and hide a flame so black from the daylight!

Now my innocence begins to weigh me down.

Felicity is in possession, happiness in anticipation.

Happiness heldis the seed
happiness shared is the flower,
happiness seems to be shared

All is asleep: the army, the wind, and Neptune.

I have pushed virtue to outright brutality.

To save our imperiled honor everything must be sacrificed, even virtue.

Crime like virtue has its degrees; and timid innocence was never known to blossom suddenly into extreme license.

Wrinkles on the brow are the imprints of exploits.

What does it matter if, by chance, a little vile blood be spilled?

Great crimes come never singly; they are linked To sins that went before.

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.

Behind a veil, unseen yet present, I was the forceful soul that moved this mighty body.

Justice in the extreme is often unjust.

Hippolytus can feel, and feels nothing for me!

Many a time a man cannot be such as he would be, if circumstances do not admit of it.

Disagreeable suspicions are usually the fruits of a second marriage.

I embrace my rival, but only to strangle him.

There may be guilt when there is too much virtue.

I can hear those glances that you think are silent.

Hell, covering all with its gloomy vapors, has cast shadows on even the holiest eyes.

It behooves a prudent person to make trial of everything before arms.

The faith that acts not, is it truly faith?

I am a man, and nothing that concerns a man do I deem a matter of indifference to me.

I felt for my crime a just terror; I looked on my life with hate, and my passion with horror.

Do not they bring it to pass by knowing that they know nothing at all?

None love, but they who wish to love.

Nothing is so difficult but that it may be found out by seeking.

My death, taking the light from my eyes, gives back to the day the purity which they soiled.

It's no longer a warmth hidden in my veins: it's Venus entire and whole fastening on her prey.

Thank the Gods! My misery exceeds all my hopes!

I have loved him too much not to hate

The crime of a mother is a heavy burden.

When will the veil be lifted that casts so black a night over the universe? God of Israel, lift at last the gloom: For how long will you be hidden?

According as the man is, so must you humour him.

Henceforth the majesty of God revere;Fear Him, and you have nothing else to fear.

The day is not purer than the depths of my heart.

Extreme justice is often injustice.

Honor, without money, is a mere malady.

The face of tyranny Is always mild at first.

It is a maxim of old that among themselves all things are common to friends.

How good is God! How sweet his yoke!

Is a faith without action a sincere faith?

Do you think you can be righteous and holy with impunity?

Often it is fatal to live too long.

He who will travel far spares his steed.

If I could believe that this was said sincerely, I could put up with anything.

I know the disposition of women: when you will, they won't; when you won't, they set their hearts upon you of their own inclination.

The part I remember best is the beginning.

In fine, nothing is said now that has not been said before.

Innocence has nothing to dread.

The principal rule of art is to please and to move. All the other rules were created to achieve this first one.

Me, rule? Me, place the State under my law, when my feeble reason no longer rules even myself!

And forever goodbye! Forever! Oh, Sir, can you imagine how dreadful this cruel word sounds when one loves?

The feeling of mistrust is always the last which a great mind acquires.

Small crimes always precedes great ones.

The glory of my name increases my shame. Less known by mortals, I could better escape their eyes.

He who has far to ride spares his horse.

A single word often betrays a great design.

Have there ever been more submissive slaves? Adoring, even in their irons, the God who punishes them.

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.

Life is a comedy to those who think, a tragedy to those who feel.

I have everything, yet have nothing; and although I possess nothing, still of nothing am I in want.

Ah, why can't I know if I love, or if I hate?

Vice, like virtue, Grows in small steps, and no true innocence Can ever fall at once to deepest guilt.

I loved you when you were unfaithful; what would I have done if you were true?

Sir, that much prudence calls for too much worry; I cannot foresee misfortunes so far away.

Some smaller crimes always precede the great crimes.

You who love wild passions, flee the holy austerity of my pleasures. All here breathes of God, peace and truth.

Too much virtue can be criminal.

Flight is lawful, when one flies from tyrants.

There are no secrets that time does not reveal.

The heart that can no longer love passionately must with fury hate.