He who lives without tobacco is not worthy to live.
‘Dom Juan’ (performed 1665) act 1, sc. 1
Je vis de bonne soupe et non de beau langage.
It’s good food and not fine words that keeps me alive.
‘Les femmes savantes’ (1672) act 2, sc. 7
Guenille, si l’on veut: ma guenille m’est chére.
Rags and tatters, if you like: I am fond of my rags and tatters.
‘Les femmes savantes’ (1672) act 2, sc. 7
Un sot savant est sot plus qu’un sot ignorant.
A knowledgeable fool is a greater fool than an ignorant fool.
‘Les femmes savantes’ (1672) act 4, sc. 3
Les livres cadrent mal avec le mariage.
Reading goes ill with the married state.
‘Les femmes savantes’ (1672) act 5, sc. 3
Gèronte: Il me semble que vous les placez autrement qu’ils ne sont: que le coeur est du côtè gauche, et le foie du côtè droit.
Sganarelle: Oui, cela ètait autrefois ainsi, mais nous avons changè tout cela, et nous faisons maintenant la mèdecine d’une mèthode toute nouvelle.
Gèronte: It seems to me you are locating them wrongly: the heart is on the left and the liver is on the right.
Sganarelle: Yes, in the old days that was so, but we have changed all that, and we now practise
medicine by a completely new method.
‘Le Mèdecin malgrè lui’ (1667) act 2, sc. 4
Il faut, parmi le monde, une vertu traitable.
Virtue, in the great world, should be amenable.
‘Le Misanthrope’ (1666) act 1, sc. 1
Et c’est une folie á nulle autre seconde, De vouloir se mêler de corriger le monde.
Of all human follies there’s none could be greater
Than trying to render our fellow-men better.
‘Le Misanthrope’ (1666) act 1, sc. 1
On doit se regarder soi-même, un fort long temps, Avant que de songer á condamner les gens.
One should look long and carefully at oneself before passing judgement on others.
‘Le Misanthrope’ (1666) act 3, sc. 4
C’est un homme expèditif, qui aime á dèpêcher ses malades; et quand on a á mourir, cela se fait avec lui le plus vite du monde.
He’s an expeditious man, who likes to hurry his patients along; and when you have to die, he
sees to that quicker than anyone.
‘Monsieur de Pourceaugnac’ (1670) act 1, sc. 5
Ils commencent ici par faire pendre un homme et puis ils lui font son procés.
Here [in Paris] they hang a man first, and try him afterwards.
‘Monsieur de Pourceaugnac’ (1670) act 1, sc. 5
Les gens de qualitè savent tout sans avoir jamais rien appris.
People of quality know everything without ever having been taught anything.
‘Les Prècieuses ridicules’ (1660) sc. 9
Assassiner c’est le plus court chemin.
Assassination is the quickest way.
‘Le Sicilien’ (1668) sc. 12
Ah, pour être dèvot, je n’en suis pas moins homme.
I am not the less human for being devout.
‘Le Tartuffe’ (performed 1664, published 1669) act 3, sc. 3
Le ciel dèfend, de vrai, certains contentements; Mais on trouve avec lui des accommodements.
God, it is true, does some delights condemn,
But ’tis not hard to come to terms with Him.
‘Le Tartuffe’ (1669) act 4, sc. 5
Le scandale du monde est ce qui fait l’offense, Et ce n’est pas pècher que pècher en silence.
It is public scandal that constitutes offence, and to sin in secret is not to sin at all.
‘Le Tartuffe’ (1669) act 4, sc. 5
L’homme est, je vous l’avoue, un mèchant animal.
Man, I can assure you, is a nasty creature.
‘Le Tartuffe’ (1669) act 5, sc. 6
Il m’est permis de reprendre mon bien oû je le trouve.
It is permitted me to take good fortune where I find it.
In J. L. Le Gallois ‘La Vie de Moliére’ (1704) p. 14
1.145 Mary Mollineux 1648-95
How sweet is harmless solitude! What can its joys control? Tumults and noise may not intrude, To interrupt the soul.
‘Solitude’ (1670)
1.146 Helmuth Von Moltke 1800-91
Der ewige Friede ist ein Traum, und nicht einmal ein schöner und der Krieg ein Glied in Gottes Weltordnung...Ohne den Krieg würde die Welt in Materialismus versumpfen.
Everlasting peace is a dream, and not even a pleasant one; and war is a necessary part of God’s
arrangement of the world...Without war the world would deteriorate into materialism.
Letter to Dr J. K. Bluntschli, 11 December 1880, in ‘Field-Marshall Count Helmuth von Moltke as a Correspondent’ (1893) p. 272 (translation by Mary Herms)
1.147 Walter Mondale 1928—
See Cliff Freeman (6.81) in Volume I
1.148 William Cosmo Monkhouse 1840-1901
There once was an old man of Lyme Who married three wives at a time, When asked ‘Why a third?’
He replied, ‘One’s absurd!
And bigamy, Sir, is a crime!’
‘Nonsense Rhymes’ (1902)
1.149 Duke of Monmouth 1649-85
Do not hack me as you did my Lord Russell.
Words addressed to his executioner, in T. B. Macaulay ‘History of England’ vol. 1 (1849), ch. 5
1.150 Lady Mary Wortley Montagu 1689-1762
But the fruit that can fall without shaking, Indeed is too mellow for me.
‘Answered, for Lord William Hamilton’ in Lord Wharncliffe (ed.) ‘The Letters and Works of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu’ (1861) vol. 2, p. 477
Let this great maxim be my virtue’s guide: In part she is to blame, who has been tried, He comes too near, that comes to be denied.
‘The Plain Dealer’ (27 April 1724) ‘The Resolve’
And we meet with champagne and a chicken at last.
‘Six Town Eclogues’ (1747) ‘The Lover’ l. 25
As Ovid has sweetly in parable told,
We harden like trees, and like rivers grow cold.
‘Six Town Eclogues’ (1747) ‘The Lover’ l. 47
In chains and darkness, wherefore should I stay, And mourn in prison, while I keep the key?
‘Verses on Self-Murder’ in ‘The London Magazine’ (1749)
This world consists of men, women, and Herveys.
‘Letters’ vol. 1, p. 67; John Hervey (Baron Hervey of Ickworth, 1696-1743) was much satirised by Pope, Lady Mary collaborating with him in his attempts at retaliation
General notions are generally wrong.
Letter to her husband Edward Wortley Montagu, 28 March 1710, in Robert Halsband (ed.) ‘The Complete Letters of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu’ vol. 1 (1965) p. 24
Civility costs nothing and buys everything.
Letter to her daughter Mary, Countess of Bute, 30 May 1756, in Robert Halsband (ed.) ‘The Complete Letters of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu’ vol. 3 (1967) p. 107
People wish their enemies dead—but I do not; I say give them the gout, give them the stone!
Letter from Horace Walpole to the Earl of Harcourt, 17 September 1778, in W. S. Lewis et al. (eds.) ‘Horace Walpole’s Correspondence’ vol. 35 (1973) p. 489
1.151 C. E. Montague 1867-1928
War hath no fury like a non-combatant.
‘Disenchantment’ (1922) ch. 16
1.152 Montaigne (Michel Eyquem de Montaigne) 1533-92
Pour juger des choses grandes et hautes, il faut une âme de même, autrement nous leur attribuons le vice qui est le nôtre.
To make judgements about great and high things, a soul of the same stature is needed;
otherwise we ascribe to them that vice which is our own.
‘Essais’ (1580) bk. 1, ch. 14 [References are to M. Rat’s edition of the ‘Essais’ (1958) which, in accordance with the Strowski and Gebelin text (1906-33), conflates the 1580 edition of books 1 and 2, the revised and enlarged 1588 edition of all three books, and later manuscript additions published posthumously]
Il faut être toujours bottè et prêt á partir.
One should always have one’s boots on, and be ready to leave.
‘Essais’ (1580) bk. 1, ch. 20.
Je veux...que la mort me trouve plantant mes choux, mais nonchalant d’elle, et encore plus de mon jardin imparfait.
I want death to find me planting my cabbages, but caring little for it, and even less about the
imperfections of my garden.
‘Essais’ (1580) bk. 1, ch. 20
Le continuel ouvrage de votre vie, c’est bâtir la mort.
The ceaseless labour of your life is to build the house of death.
‘Essais’ (1580) bk. 1, ch. 20
L’utilitè du vivre n’est pas en l’espace, elle est en l’usage; tel a vècu longtemps qui a peu vècu...Il gît en votre volontè, non au nombre des ans, que vous ayez assez vècu.
The value of life lies not in the length of days but in the use you make of them; he has lived for a long time who has little lived. Whether you have lived enough depends not on the number of
your years but on your will.
‘Essais’ (1580) bk. 1, ch. 20
Il faut noter, que les jeux d’enfants ne sont pas jeux, et les faut juger en eux comme leurs plus sèrieuses actions.
It should be noted that children at play are not playing about; their games should be seen as
their most serious-minded activity.
‘Essais’ (1580) bk. 1, ch. 23
Si on me presse de dire pourquoi je l’aimais, je sens que cela ne se peut s’exprimer, qu’en rèpondant: ‘Parce que c’ètait lui; parce que c’ètait moi.’
If I am pressed to say why I loved him, I feel it can only be explained by replying: ‘Because it
was he; because it was me.’
‘Essais’ (1580) bk. 1, ch. 28 (on his friend Ètienne de la Boètie)
Il n’y a guére moins de tourment au gouvernement d’une famille que d’un ètat entier...et, pour être les occupations domestiques moins importantes, elles n’en sont pas moins importunes.
There is scarcely any less bother in the running of a family than in that of an entire state. And
domestic business is no less importunate for being less important.
‘Essais’ (1580) bk. 1, ch. 39
Il se faut rèserver une arriére boutique toute nôtre, toute franche, en laquelle nous ètablissons nôtre vraie libertè et principale retraite et solitude.
A man should keep for himself a little back shop, all his own, quite unadulterated, in which he
establishes his true freedom and chief place of seclusion and solitude.
‘Essais’ (1580) bk. 1, ch. 39
La plus grande chose du monde, c’est de savoir être á soi.
The greatest thing in the world is to know how to be one’s own.
‘Essais’ (1580) bk. 1, ch. 39
La gloire et le repos sont choses qui ne peuvent loger en même gîte.
Fame and tranquillity can never be bedfellows.
‘Essais’ (1580) bk. 1, ch. 39
Mon mètier et mon art c’est vivre.
Living is my job and my art.
‘Essais’ (1580) bk. 2, ch. 6
La vertu refuse la facilitè pour compagne...Elle demande un chemin âpre et èpineux.
Virtue shuns ease as a companion....It demands a rough and thorny path.
‘Essais’ (1580) bk. 2, ch. 11
Notre religion est faite pour extirper les vices; elle les couvre, les nourrit, les incite.
Our religion is made so as to wipe out vices; it covers them up, nourishes them, incites them.
‘Essais’ (1580) bk. 2, ch. 12
Quand je me joue á ma chatte, qui sait si elle passe son temps de moi plus que je ne fais d’elle?
When I play with my cat, who knows whether she isn’t amusing herself with me more than I
am with her?
‘Essais’ (1580) bk. 2, ch. 12
‘Que sais-je?’
What do I know?
‘Essais’ (1580) bk. 2, ch. 12 (on discussing the position of the sceptic)
L’homme est bien insensè. Il ne saurait forger un ciron, et forge des Dieux á douzaines.
Man is quite insane. He wouldn’t know how to create a maggot, and he creates Gods by the
dozen.
‘Essais’ (1580) bk. 2, ch. 12
Ceux qui ont appariè notre vie á un songe, ont eu de la raison, á l’aventure plus qu’ils ne pensaient...Nous veillons dormants, et veillants dormons.
Those who have likened our life to a dream were more right, by chance, than they realised. We are awake while sleeping, and waking sleep.
‘Essais’ (1580) bk. 2, ch. 12
Quelqu’un pourrait dire de moi que j’ai seulement fait ici un amas de fleurs ètrangéres, n’y ayant fourni du mien que le filet á les lier.
It could be said of me that in this book I have only made up a bunch of other men’s flowers,
providing of my own only the string that ties them together.
A man should be mourned at his birth, not his death.
‘Lettres Persanes’ (1721) no. 40
If triangles had a god, he would have three sides.
‘Lettres Persanes’ (1721) no. 59
Freedom is the right of doing whatever the laws permit.
‘De l’Esprit des Lois’ (1748)
Under moderate government, men are more attached to morals and less to religion; in despotic countries, they are more attached to religion and less to morals.
‘De l’Esprit des Lois’ (1748)
Les grands seigneurs ont des plaisirs, le peuple a de la joie.
Great lords have their pleasures, but the people have fun.
‘Pensèes et fragments inèdits de Montesquieu’ vol. 2 (1901) no. 992
Les Anglais sont occupès; ils n’ont pas le temps d’être polis.
The English are busy; they don’t have time to be polite.
‘Pensèes et fragments inèdits de Montesquieu’ vol. 2 (1901) no. 1428
Happy the people whose annals are blank in history-books!
Attributed to Montesquieu by Thomas Carlyle, in ‘History of Frederick the Great’ bk. 16, ch. 1.
1.154 Field-Marshal Montgomery (Viscount Montgomery of Alamein) 1887-1976
Rule 1, on page 1 of the book of war, is: ‘Do not march on Moscow’...[Rule 2] is: ‘Do not go fighting with your land armies in China.’
‘Hansard’ (Lords) 30 May 1962, col. 227
I have heard some say...that such [homosexual] practices are allowed in France and in other NATO countries. We are not French, and we are not other nationals. We are British, thank God!
Speaking on the 2nd reading of the Sexual Offences Bill; in ‘Hansard’ (Lords) 24 May 1965, col. 648
1.155 Robert Montgomery 1807-55
The solitary monk who shook the world.
‘Luther: a Poem’ (1842) ch. 3 ‘Man’s Need and God’s Supply’
And thou, vast ocean! on whose awful face Time’s iron feet can print no ruin-trace.
‘The Omnipresence of the Deity’ (1830 ed.) pt. 1, l. 105
1.156 Casimir, Comte de Montrond 1768-1843
Dèfiez-vous des premiers mouvements parce qu’ils sont bons.
Have no truck with first impulses for they are always generous ones.
Attributed, in Comte J. d’Estourmel ‘Derniers Souvenirs’ (1860) p. 319, where the attribution to Talleyrand is denied.
1.157 Marquis of Montrose
See James Graham (7.77) in Volume I
1.158 Percy Montrose
In a cavern, in a canyon, Excavating for a mine, Dwelt a miner, Forty-niner,
And his daughter, Clementine.
Oh, my darling, oh my darling, oh my darling Clementine! Thou art lost and gone for ever, dreadful sorry, Clementine.
‘Clementine’ (1884)
1.159 Clement C. Moore 1779-1863
’Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse;
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care, In hopes that St Nicholas soon would be there.
‘A Visit from St Nicholas’ (December 1823)
1.160 Edward Moore 1712-57
This is adding insult to injuries.
‘The Foundling’ (1748) act 5, sc. 5
I am rich beyond the dreams of avarice.
‘The Gamester’ (1753) act 2, sc. 2.
1.161 George Moore 1852-1933
The lot of critics is to be remembered by what they failed to understand.
‘Impressions and Opinions’ (1891) ‘Balzac’
All reformers are bachelors.
‘The Bending of the Bough’ (1900) act 1
A man travels the world in search of what he needs and returns home to find it.
‘The Brook Kerith’ (1916) ch. 11
Art must be parochial in the beginning to become cosmopolitan in the end.
‘Hail and Farewell: Ave’ (1911) p. 3 (quoting himself)
Acting is therefore the lowest of the arts, if it be an art at all.
‘Impressions and Opinions’ (1891) ‘Mummer-Worship’
1.162 Marianne Moore 1887-1972
O to be a dragon,
a symbol of the power of Heaven—of silkworm size or immense; at times invisible.
Felicitous phenomenon!
‘O To Be a Dragon’ (1959)
I, too, dislike it: there are things that are important beyond all this fiddle. Reading it, however, with a perfect contempt for it, one discovers in it, after all, a place for the genuine.
‘Poetry’ (1935)
Nor till the poets among us can be ‘literalists of
the imagination’—above
insolence and triviality and can present
for inspection, imaginary gardens with real toads in them, shall we have it.
‘Poetry’ (1935)
My father used to say,
‘Superior people never make long visits, have to be shown Longfellow’s grave or the glass flowers at Harvard.’
‘Silence’ (1935)
Nor was he insincere in saying, ‘Make my house your inn.’ Inns are not residences.
‘Silence’ (1935)
1.163 Sturge Moore 1870-1944
Then, cleaving the grass, gazelles appear (The gentler dolphins of kindlier waves) With sensitive heads alert of ear;
Frail crowds that a delicate hearing saves.
‘The Gazelles’
1.164 Thomas Moore 1779-1852
Yet, who can help loving the land that has taught us Six hundred and eighty-five ways to dress eggs?
‘The Fudge Family in Paris’ (1818) letter 8, l. 64
For you know, dear—I may, without vanity, hint— Though an angel should write, still ‘tis devils must print.
‘The Fudges in England’ (1835) letter 3, l. 64
Believe me, if all those endearing young charms, Which I gaze on so fondly today,
Were to change by tomorrow, and fleet in my arms, Like fairy gifts fading away!
Thou wouldst still be adored as this moment thou art, Let thy loveliness fade as it will,
And around the dear ruin each wish of my heart Would entwine itself verdantly still.
‘Irish Melodies’ (1807) ‘Believe me, if all those endearing young charms’
No, the heart that has truly loved never forgets, But as truly loves on to the close,
As the sun-flower turns on her god, when he sets, The same look which she turned when he rose.
‘Irish Melodies’ (1807) ‘Believe me, if all those endearing young charms’
’Twas from Kathleen’s eyes he flew, Eyes of most unholy blue!
‘Irish Melodies’ (1807) ‘By that Lake’
You may break, you may shatter the vase, if you will, But the scent of the roses will hang round it still.
‘Irish Melodies’ (1807) ‘Farewell!-but whenever’
The harp that once through Tara’s halls The soul of music shed,
Now hangs as mute on Tara’s walls As if that soul were fled.—
So sleeps the pride of former days, So glory’s thrill is o’er;
And hearts, that once beat high for praise, Now feel that pulse no more.
‘Irish Melodies’ (1807) ‘The harp that once through Tara’s halls’
No, there’s nothing half so sweet in life As love’s young dream.
‘Irish Melodies’ (1807) ‘Love’s Young Dream’
The Minstrel Boy to the war is gone, In the ranks of death you’ll find him; His father’s sword he has girded on, And his wild harp slung behind him.
‘Irish Melodies’ (1807) ‘The Minstrel Boy’
Oh! blame not the bard, if he fly to the bowers, Where Pleasure lies, carelessly smiling at Fame.
