To vanquish without peril is to triumph without glory.
— Pierre Corneille
It matters more how one gives than what one gives.
He who allows me to rule is in fact my master.
In the service of Caesar, everything is legitimate.
Desire increases when fulfillment is postponed.
Each instant of life is a step toward death.
An example is often a deceptive mirror, and the order of destiny, so troubling to our thoughts, is not always found written in things past.
My reason, it's true, controls my feelings, but whatever its authority, it doesn't rule them so much as tyrannize them.
One half of my life has put the other half in the grave.
Reason and love are sworn enemies.
Oh rage! Oh despair! Oh age, my enemy!
I agree to, or rather aspire to, my doom.
Flee an enemy who knows your weakness.
A true king is neither husband nor father; he considers his throne and nothing else.
To die for one's country is such a worthy fate that all compete for so beautiful a death.
When the patient loves his disease, how unwilling he is to allow a remedy to be applied.
One ought to have a good memory when he has told a lie.
He who plays advisor is no longer ambassador.
He who can live in infamy is unworthy of life.
Self-love is the source of all our other loves.
In recounting our woes, we often soothe them.
As great as kings may be, they are what we are: they can err like other men.
Treachery is noble when aimed at tyranny.
They who overcome their desires once can overcome them always.
Deceit is the game of petty spirits, and that is by nature a woman's quality.
I can be forced to live without happiness, but I will never consent to live without honor.
True, I am young, but for souls nobly born valor doesn't await the passing of years.
It is a crime against the State to be powerful enough to commit one.
I would not like a king who could obey.
Clemency is the noblest trait which can reveal a true monarch to the world.
I see, I know, I believe, I am undeceived.
Alas, I emerge from one disaster to fall into a worse.
When there is no peril in the fight there is no glory in the triumph.
Guess, if you can, and choose, if you dare.
The subject of a good tragedy must not be realistic.
The greater the effort, the greater the glory.
To take revenge halfheartedly is to court disaster; either condemn or crown your hatred.
We never taste a perfect joy; our happiest successes are mixed with sadness.
It takes good memory to keep up a lie.
He who pardons easily invites offense.
One is often guilty by being too just.
To he who avenges a father, nothing is impossible.
After having won a scepter, few are so generous as to disdain the pleasures of ruling.
Oh, how sweet it is to pity the fate of an enemy who can no longer threaten us!
I don't know how to defend myself: surprised innocence cannot imagine being under suspicion.
My sweetest hope is to lose hope.
Master of the universe but not of myself, I am the only rebel against my absolute power.
How delicious is pleasure after torment!
We never taste happiness in perfection, our most fortunate successes are mixed with sadness.
It is the crime not the scaffold which is the disgrace.
