Top 200 Molière Quotes (2026 Update)
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151. “When there is enough to eat for eight, there is plenty for ten.”

— Molière

152. “Everything that’s prose isn’t verse and everything that isn’t verse is prose. Now you see what it is to be a scholar!”

— Molière

153. “Perfect good sense shuns all extremity, content to couple wisdom with sobriety.”

— Molière

154. “He must have killed a lot of men to have made so much money.”

— Molière

155. “Frenchmen have an unlimited capacity for gallantry and indulge it on every occasion.”

— Molière

156. “Frankly, it’s good enough to lock up in a drawer.”

— Molière

157. “There is no fate more distressing for an artist than to have to show himself off before fools, to see his work exposed to the criticism of the vulgar and ignorant.”

— Molière

158. “Grammar, which knows how to lord it over kings, and with high hands makes them obey its laws.”

— Molière

159. “I maintain, in truth, That with a smile we should instruct our youth, Be very gentle when we have to blame, And not put them in fear of virtue’s name.”

— Molière

160. “Gold is the key, whatever else we try; and that sweet metal aids the conqueror in every case, in love as well as war.”

— Molière

161. “How easily a fathers tenderness is recalled, and how quickly a son’s offenses vanish at the slightest word of repentance!”

— Molière

162. “When we are understood, we always speak well, and then all your fine diction serves no purpose.”

— Molière

163. “Sometimes I feel something akin to rage At the corrupted morals of this age!”

— Molière

164. “All which is not prose is verse; and all which is not verse is prose.”

— Molière

165. “Malicious tongues spread their poison abroad and nothing here below is proof against them.”

— Molière

166. “The genuine Amphitryon is the Amphitryon with whom we dine.”

— Molière

167. “He who follows his lessons tastes a profound peace, and looks upon everybody as a bunch of manure.”

— Molière

168. “It may cost me twenty thousand francs; but for twenty thousand francs, I will have the right to rail against the iniquity of humanity, and to devote to it my eternal hatred.”

— Molière

169. “True, Heaven prohibits certain pleasures; but one can generally negotiate a compromise.”

— Molière

170. “Of all human foibles love of living is the most powerful.”

— Molière

171. “Once you have the cap and gown all you need do is open your mouth. Whatever nonsense you talk becomes wisdom and all the rubbish good sense.”

— Molière

172. “We are all mortals, and each is for himself.”

— Molière

173. “Assassination’s the fastest way.”

— Molière

174. “Even Rome cannot grant us a dispensation from death.”

— Molière

175. “Age brings about everything; but it is not the time, Madam, as we know, to be a prude at twenty.”

— Molière

176. “Oh, I may be devout, but I am human all the same.”

— Molière

177. “You think you can marry for your own pleasure, friend?”

— Molière

178. “In order to prove a friend to one’s guests, frugality must reign in one’s meals; and, according to an ancient saying, one must eat to live, not live to eat.”

— Molière

179. “There is no reward so delightful, no pleasure so exquisite, as having one’s work known and acclaimed by those whose applause confers honor.”

— Molière

180. “She is laughing up her sleeve at you.”

— Molière

181. “My heavens! I’ve been talking prose for the last forty years without knowing it.”

— Molière

182. “Human weakness is to desire to know what one does not want to know.”

— Molière

183. “Stay awhile that we may make an end the sooner.”

— Molière

184. “Deference and intimacy live far apart.”

— Molière

185. “And knowing money is a root of evil, in Christian charity, he’d take away whatever things may hinder your salvation.”

— Molière

186. “Oh, how fine it is to know a thing or two.”

— Molière

187. “That must be fine, for I don’t understand a word.”

— Molière

188. “All right-minded people adore it; and anyone who is able to live without it is unworthy to draw breathe.”

— Molière

189. “How strange it is to see with how much passion People see things only in their own fashion!”

— Molière

190. “A laudation in Greek is of marvellous efficacy on the title-page of a book.”

— Molière

191. “I have a heart to love all the world; and like Alexander I wish there were yet other worlds, so I could carry even further my amorous conquests.”

— Molière

192. “Perfect reason avoids all extremes.”

— Molière

193. “People of quality know everything without ever having learned anything.”

— Molière

194. “Better to be married than dead!”

— Molière

195. “Ah! how annoying that the law doesn’t allow a woman to change husbands just as one does shirts.”

— Molière

196. “Some of the most famous books are the least worth reading. Their fame was due to their having done something that needed to be doing in their day. The work is done and the virtue of the book has expired.”

— Molière

Featured in: Reading Quotes

197. “It is fine for a woman to know a lot; but I don’t want her to have this shocking desire to be learned for learnedness sake. When I ask a woman a question, I like her to pretend to ignore what she really knows.”

— Molière

198. “It’s an odd job, making decent people laugh.”

— Molière

199. “One can be well-bred and write bad poetry.”

— Molière

200. “Wives rarely fuss about their beauty To guarantee their mate’s affection.”

— Molière