Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux

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Often the fear of one evil leads us into a worse.

Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux (1 November 1636 – 13 March 1711), commonly called Boileau, was a French poet and critic.

[edit] Sourced

Happy the poet who with ease can steer
From grave to gay, from lively to severe.

Virtue alone is the unerring sign of a noble soul.

• Tant de fiel entre-t-il dans l'âme des dévots ?
  • Can such bitterness enter into the heart of the devout?
  • Le Lutrin (1683) I, 12

• Pour soutenir tes droits, que le ciel autorise,
  Abime tout plutôt ; c'est l'esprit de l'Église.
  • To support those of your rights authorized by Heaven, destroy everything rather than yield; that is the spirit of the Church.
  • Le Lutrin (1683) I, 185

• Let him now speak, or else hereafter for ever hold his peace.
  • Épitres (1701) I, 61

• Le chagrin monte en croupe et galope avec lui.
  • Trouble rides behind and gallops with him.
  • Épitres (1701) V, 44

• Le temps fuit, et nous traine avec soi :
  Le moment ou je parle est déjà loin de moi.
  • Time flies and draws us with it. The moment in which I am speaking is already far from me.
  • Épitres (1701) III, 47

• 'Nothing but truth is lovely, nothing fair.
  • Epistle 9

• The terrible burden of having nothing to do.
  • Epistle 11

[edit] L'Art Poétique (The Art of Poetry, 1674)

• Tout ce qu'on dit de trop est fade et rebutant.
  • That which is repeated too often becomes insipid and tedious.
  • Canto I, l. 61

• Souvent la peur d'un mal nous conduit dans un pire.
  • Often the fear of one evil leads us into a worse.
  • Canto I, l. 64

• Heureux qui, dans ses vers, sait d'une voix légère
  Passer du grave au doux, du plaisant au sévère.
  • Happy the poet who with ease can steer
    From grave to gay, from lively to severe.
  • Canto I, l. 75

• Ce que l'on conçoit bien s'énonce clairement,
  Et les mots pour le dire arrivent aisément.
  • Whatever is well conceived is clearly said,
    And the words to say it flow with ease.
  • Canto I, l. 153

• Hâtez-vous lentement ; et, sans perdre courage,
  Vingt fois sur le métier remettez votre ouvrage.
  • Hasten slowly, and without losing heart,
    Put your work twenty times upon the anvil.
  • Canto I, l. 171

• La vérité n'a point cet air impétueux.
  • Truth has not such an urgent air.
  • Canto I, l. 198

• Un sot trouve toujours un plus sot qui l'admire.
  • A fool always finds one still more foolish to admire him.
  • Variant A fool always finds a greater fool to admire him.
  • Canto I, l. 232

Honor is like an island, rugged and without a beach;
Once we have left it, we can never return.

• Le vrai peut quelquefois n'être pas vraisemblable.
  • At times truth may not seem probable.
  • Canto III, l. 48

• Every age has its pleasures, its style of wit, and its own ways.
  • Canto III, l. 374

• Un fat quelquefois ouvre un avis important.
  • A fop sometimes gives important advice.
  • Canto IV, l. 50

[edit] Satires (1716)

• L'homme le plus sage est lui qui ne aime pas qu'il est ainsi du tout.
  • The wisest man is he who does not fancy that he is so at all.
  • Satire I, l. 46

Hasten slowly, and without losing heart,
Put your work twenty times upon the anvil.

• Je ne puis rien nommer si ce n'est par son nom ;
  J'appelle un chat un chat, et Rollet un fripon.
  • I can call nothing by name if that is not his name. I call a cat a cat, and Rollet a rogue.
  • Satire I, l. 51

• Il plait a tout le monde et ne saurait se plaire.
  • He (Molière) pleases all the world, but cannot please himself.
  • Satire I, l. 94

• In spite of every sage whom Greece can show,
  Unerring wisdom never dwelt below;
  Folly in all of every age we see,
  The only difference lies in the degree.
  • Satire 4, l. 37

• Greatest fools are oft most satisfied.
  • Satire 4, l. 128

[[|thumb|144px|The wisest man is he who does not fancy that he is so at all.]]

• La vertu d'un cœur noble est la marque certaine.
  • Virtue alone is the unerring sign of a noble soul.
  • Satire 5, l. 42

• If your descent is from heroic sires,
  Show in your life a remnant of their fires.
  • Satire 5, l. 43

• Of all the creatures that creep, swim, or fly,
  Peopling the earth, the waters, and the sky,
  From Rome to Iceland, Paris to Japan,
  I really think the greatest fool is man.
  • Satire 8, l. 1

• L'or même à la laideur donne un teint de beauté :
  Mais tout devient affreux avec la pauvreté.
  • Gold gives an appearance of beauty even to ugliness:
    But with poverty everything becomes frightful.
  • Satire 8, l. 209

If your descent is from heroic sires,
Show in your life a remnant of their fires.

• 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.
  • Satire 8, l. 257

• L'honneur est comme une ile escarpée et sans bords ;
  On n'y peut plus rentrer dès qu'on en est dehors.
  • Honor is like an island, rugged and without a beach; once we have left it, we can never return.
  • Satire 10, l. 167

• Now two punctilious envoys, Thine and Mine,
  Embroil the earth about a fancied line;
  And, dwelling much on right and much on wrong,
  Prove how the right is chiefly with the strong.
  • Satire 11, l. 141

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Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux