Top 80 Jean Racine Quotes (2025 Update)

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

— Jean Racine

2. “There are no secrets that time does not reveal.”

— Jean Racine

3. “The quarrels of lovers are the renewal of love.”

— Jean Racine

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

— Jean Racine

5. “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.”

— Jean Racine

6. “Often it is fatal to live too long.”

— Jean Racine

7. “I will die if I lose you, but I will die if I wait longer.”

— Jean Racine

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

— Jean Racine

9. “The face of tyranny Is always mild at first.”

— Jean Racine

10. “To repair the irreparable ravages of time.”

— Jean Racine

11. “Crime, like virtue, has its degrees.”

— Jean Racine

12. “I embrace my rival, but only to strangle him.”

— Jean Racine

13. “He who laughs on Friday will weep on Sunday.”

— Jean Racine

14. “Flight is lawful, when one flies from tyrants.”

— Jean Racine

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

— Jean Racine

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

— Jean Racine

17. “You feign guilt in order to justify yourself.”

— Jean Racine

18. “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.”

— Jean Racine

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

— Jean Racine

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

— Jean Racine

21. “Love is not dumb. The heart speaks many ways.”

— Jean Racine

22. “Innocence has nothing to dread.”

— Jean Racine

23. “None love, but they who wish to love.”

— Jean Racine

24. “He who has far to ride spares his horse.”

— Jean Racine

25. “My only hope lies in my despair.”

— Jean Racine

26. “The faith that acts not, is it truly faith?”

— Jean Racine

27. “Tyranny always starts auspiciously.”

— Jean Racine

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

— Jean Racine

29. “He who ruleth the raging of the sea, knows also how to check the designs of the ungodly. I submit myself with reverence to His Holy Will. O Abner, I fear my God, and I fear none but Him.”

— Jean Racine

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

— Jean Racine

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

— Jean Racine

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

— Jean Racine

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

— Jean Racine

34. “Is a faith without action a sincere faith?”

— Jean Racine

35. “Can a faith that does nothing be called sincere?”

— Jean Racine

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

— Jean Racine

37. “Disagreeable suspicions are usually the fruits of a second marriage.”

— Jean Racine

38. “Wrinkles on the brow are the imprints of exploits.”

— Jean Racine

39. “I have loved him too much not to hate.”

— Jean Racine

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

— Jean Racine

41. “Do you think you can be righteous and holy with impunity?”

— Jean Racine

42. “The part I remember best is the beginning.”

— Jean Racine

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

— Jean Racine

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

— Jean Racine

45. “Ah, why can’t I know if I love, or if I hate?”

— Jean Racine

46. “The joys of the evil flow away like a torrent.”

— Jean Racine

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

— Jean Racine

48. “And do you count for nothing God who fights for us?”

— Jean Racine

49. “Small crimes always precede great ones. Never have we seen timid innocence pass suddenly to extreme licentiousness.”

— Jean Racine

50. “Extreme justice is often injustice.”

— Jean Racine