James Wood, comp. Dictionary of Quotations. 1899.
Molière
Ah! il n’y a plus d’enfants—Ah! there are no children now-a-days!
Ah! pour être dévot, je n’en suis pas moins homme—Though I am a religious man, I am not therefore the less a man.
Du côté de la barbe est la toute-puissance—The male alone has been appointed to bear rule.
En mariage, comme ailleurs, contentement passe richesse—In marriage, as in other states, contentment is better than riches.
Faire prose sans le savoir—To speak prose without knowing it.
Grammar knows how to lord it over kings, and with high hand make them obey.
Guenille, si l’on veut; ma guenille m’est chère—Call it a rag, if you please; my rag is dear to me.
Il y a fagots et fagots—There is a difference between one faggot and another.
Il y a plus de quarante ans que je dis de la prose sans que j’en susse rien—I have been speaking prose forty years without knowing it.
In marriage, as in other things, contentment excels wealth.
Je prends mon bien où je le trouve—I take my own where I find it.
L’ami du genre humain n’est point du tout mon fait—He who is the friend of every one has no interest for me.
L’impromptu est justement la pierre de touche de l’esprit—Impromptu is precisely the touchstone of wit.
La grammaire, qui sait régenter jusqu’aux rois—Grammar, that knows how to lord it even over kings.
La naissance n’est rien où la vertu n’est pas—Birth is nothing where virtue is not.
Le chemin est long du projet à la close—The road is a long one from the projection of a thing to its accomplishment.
Le monde, chère Agnès, est une étrange chose—The world, dear Agnes, is a queer concern.
Les envieux mourront, mais non jamais l’envie—The envious will die, but envy never will.
Nous avons changé tout cela—We have changed all that.
Nul n’aura de l’esprit, / Hors nous et nos amis—No one shall have wit except ourselves and our friends.
On est aisément dupé par ce qu’on aime—We are easily duped by those we love.
One can bear to be rebuked, but not to be laughed at.
Par ma foi! l’âge ne sert de guère / Quand on n’a pas cela—By my faith, age serves but little if one has not that (brains).
Par un prompt désespoir souvent on se marie, / Qu’on s’en repent après tout le temps de sa vie—We often marry in despair, so that we repent of it all our life after.
Passez-moi la rhubarbe et je vous passerai le séné—Pass you me the rhubarb, and I will pass you the senna, i.e., shut your eyes to my faults, and I will to yours.
Quand on se fait entendre on parle toujours bien—We always speak well when we manage to be understood.
Quand sur une personne on prétend se régler / C’est par les beaux côtés qu’il lui faut ressembler—When we aspire to imitate any one, it is after his fine qualities we must fashion ourselves.
Reasoning banishes reason.
The envious will die, but envy never.
The less we deserve good fortune, the more we hope for it.
The more powerful the obstacle, the more glory we have in overcoming it; and the difficulties with which we are met are the maids of honour which set off virtue.
Un gentilhomme qui vit mal est un monstre dans la nature—A nobleman who leads a degraded life is a monster in nature.
Unreasonable haste is the direct road to error.
Vous êtes orfèvre, Monsieur Josse!—You are a goldsmith, Monsieur Josse! i.e., an interested party.
What a delight to have a husband beside you, were it only to salute you when you sneeze, and say “God bless you!”