Top 140 Pierre Corneille Quotes (2025 Update)
Page 3 of 3

101. “The subject of a good tragedy must not be realistic.”

— Pierre Corneille

102. “Your arm is unvanquished, but not invincible.”

— Pierre Corneille

103. “There are secret ties, there are sympathies, by the sweet relationship of which souls that are well matched attach themselves to each other, and are affected by I know not what, which cannot be explained.”

— Pierre Corneille

104. “One is often guilty by being too just.”

— Pierre Corneille

105. “My reason, it’s true, controls my feelings, but whatever its authority, it doesn’t rule them so much as tyrannize them.”

— Pierre Corneille

106. “Omnipotence is bought with ceaseless fear.”

— Pierre Corneille

107. “The people you killed seem to be in excellent health.”

— Pierre Corneille

108. “A first impulse was never a crime.”

— Pierre Corneille

109. “What destroys one man preserves another.”

— Pierre Corneille

110. “I would not like a king who could obey.”

— Pierre Corneille

111. “I see, I know, I believe, I am undeceived.”

— Pierre Corneille

112. “Liberty may be of no more use Than stirring up the flame of civil wars; Then, by disorder fatal to the world, One wants no king, the other wants no equal.”

— Pierre Corneille

113. “A monarch must sometimes rule even himself: he who wants everything must risk very little.”

— Pierre Corneille

114. “Ambition becomes displeasing when it is once satiated; there is a reaction; and as our spirit, till our last sigh, is always aiming toward some object, it falls back on itself, having nothing else on which to rest; and having reached the summit, it longs to descend.”

— Pierre Corneille

115. “Who is all-powerful should fear everything.”

— Pierre Corneille

116. “As for our gods, we have a few too many to be true.”

— Pierre Corneille

117. “The king, just and prudent, wants only those things which he can get.”

— Pierre Corneille

118. “These flattering mirrors reflect imperfectly what is within; the countenance is often a gay deceiver. What defects of mind lie hidden under its beauty! What fair exteriors conceal base souls!”

— Pierre Corneille

119. “I have deserved neither so much honor or so much disgrace.”

— Pierre Corneille

120. “To myself alone do I owe my fame.”

— Pierre Corneille

121. “Doubt, but still hate!”

— Pierre Corneille

122. “How sweet to die after one’s enemies.”

— Pierre Corneille

123. “As great as kings may be, they are what we are: they can err like other men.”

— Pierre Corneille

124. “The worst of all States is the democratic State.”

— Pierre Corneille

125. “It is a crime against the State to be powerful enough to commit one.”

— Pierre Corneille

126. “Alas, I emerge from one disaster to fall into a worse.”

— Pierre Corneille

127. “As our self-interests differ, so do our feelings.”

— Pierre Corneille

128. “Je mourrai trop heureux mourant d’un coup si beau.”

— Pierre Corneille

129. “It is the gift of heaven and not of reason.”

— Pierre Corneille

130. “Have others fear you, and I will have no fear.”

— Pierre Corneille

131. “One doesn’t wish to see those to whom one owes so much.”

— Pierre Corneille

132. “Your virtue raises your glory above your crime.”

— Pierre Corneille

133. “In recounting our woes, we often soothe them.”

— Pierre Corneille

134. “Heaven often regulates effects by their causes, and pays the wicked what they have deserved.”

— Pierre Corneille

135. “He who is hated by all can not expect to live long.”

— Pierre Corneille

136. “He who allows me to rule is in fact my master.”

— Pierre Corneille

137. “Severity is allowable where gentleness has no effect.”

— Pierre Corneille

138. “How much must I overcome before I triumph?”

— Pierre Corneille

139. “I believe everything to be just when a king ordains it.”

— Pierre Corneille

140. “Sir, what does it matter whom I serve, so long as I am right?”

— Pierre Corneille