Its as if you think you'd never find / Reason and the Sacred intertwined
— Tartuffe
Molière, the stage name of Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, was a French playwright, actor and poet, widely regarded as one of the great writers in the French language and world literature. His surviving works include comedies, farces, tragicomedies and comédie-ballets.
His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed at the Comédie-Française more often than those of any other playwright, and French is often called "the language of Molière." Born into a prosperous family, he studied at the Collège de Clermont and spent thirteen years as an itinerant actor, sharpening his comic skills while he began writing. He blended commedia dell'arte with more refined French comedy. The Misanthrope and Tartuffe are his most quoted works in our library.
His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed at the Comédie-Française more often than those of any other playwright, and French is often called "the language of Molière." Born into a prosperous family, he studied at the Collège de Clermont and spent thirteen years as an itinerant actor, sharpening his comic skills while he began writing. He blended commedia dell'arte with more refined French comedy. The Misanthrope and Tartuffe are his most quoted works in our library.
Most quoted works
- The Misanthrope 6
- Tartuffe 3
- Le Médecin Malgré Lui 2
There is nothing I detest so much as the contortions of these great time-and-lip servers, these affable dispensers of meaningless embraces, these obliging utterers of empty words, who view every one in civilities
— The Misanthrope
My hate is general, I detest all men; Some because they are wicked and do evil, Others because they tolerate the wicked, Refusing them the active vigorous scorn / Which vice should stimulate in virtuous minds.
— The Misanthrope
Why put yourself in charge of Heaven's cause? Does Heaven need our help to enforce its laws?
— Tartuffe
Betrayed and wronged in everything, I’ll flee this bitter world where vice is king, And seek some spot unpeopled and apart / Where I’ll be free to have an honest heart.
— The Misanthrope
Malicious men may die, but malice never.
— Tartuffe
I find that it is the best trade of all; for, whether we manage well or ill, we are paid just the same.
— Le Médecin Malgré Lui
I become quite melancholy and deeply grieved to see men behave to each other as they do. Everywhere I find nothing but base flattery, injustice, self-interest, deceit and roguery. I cannot bear it any longer; I'm furious; and my intention is to break with all mankind.
— The Misanthrope
We ought to punish pitilessly that shameful pretence of friendly intercourse. I like a man to be a man, and to show on all occasions the bottom of his heart in his discourse. Let that be the thing to speak, and never let our feelings be beneath vain compliments
— The Misanthrope
If perchance a friend should betray you; if he forms a subtle plot to get hold of what is yours; if people should try to spread evil reports about you, would you tamely submit to all this without flying into a rage?
— The Misanthrope