Pierre-Claude Nivelle de La Chaussée

Pierre-Claude Nivelle de La Chaussée (14 February 1692 – 14 May 1754) was a French dramatist who blurred the lines between comedy and tragedy with his comédie larmoyante.

Quotes

• Si la mode empoisonne un natural heureux,
  A quoi sert le bonheur d'être né vertueux.
  • Fine natures, from their course by fashion torn,
    Gain nothing in that they were virtuous born.
  • Le Préjugé à la Mode (1735), act 2, sc. 5 (Damon) — Tr. Harbottle and Dalbiac (1904), p. 209

• L'amour pardonne tout.
  • Love pardons all.
  • Le Préjugé à la Mode (1735), act 5, sc. 1 (Damon) — Tr. Harbottle and Dalbiac (1904), p. 87

• Un suisse, comme un sot, fait toujours son métier.
  • A Swiss, like a fool, always sticks to his trade.
  • L'École des Mères (1744), act 2, sc. 4 (Le Marquis) — Tr. Harbottle and Dalbiac (1904), p. 231

• Quand tout le monde a tort, tout le monde a raison.
  • When every one is wrong, then every one is right.
  • La Gouvernante (1747), act 1, sc. 3 (Le Président) — Tr. Harbottle and Dalbiac (1904), p. 188

• En exagérant tout, on ne définit rien.
  • All things exaggerate, you nought define.
  • La Gouvernante (1747), act 1, sc. 3 (Le Président) — Tr. Harbottle and Dalbiac (1904), p. 46

External links

• Thomas Benfield Harbottle; Philip Hugh Dalbiac, Dictionary of Quotations: French and Italian, 2nd ed. (1904), pp. 46, 87, 188, 209, 231
• William Francis Henry King, Classical and Foreign Quotations, 3rd ed. (1904), p. 281, no. 2214