Jean Racine quotes:

The quarrels of lovers are the renewal of love.

A single word often betrays a great design.

How good is God! How sweet his yoke!

Do not they bring it to pass by knowing that they know nothing at all?

Thank the Gods! My misery exceeds all my hopes!

How admirable and beautiful is the simplicity of the Evangelists! They never speak injuriously of the enemies of Jesus Christ, of His judges, nor of His executioners. They report the facts without a single reflection. They comment neither on their Master's mildness when He was smitten, nor on His constancy in the hour of His ignominious death, which they thus describe: "And they crucified Jesus.

A noble heart cannot suspect in others the pettiness and malice that it has never felt.

Disagreeable suspicions are usually the fruits of a second marriage.

The principal rule of art is to please and to move. All the other rules were created to achieve this first one.

Hell, covering all with its gloomy vapors, has cast shadows on even the holiest eyes.

There is nothing so easy but that it becomes difficult when you do it with reluctance.

My death, taking the light from my eyes, gives back to the day the purity which they soiled.

A tragedy need not have blood and death; it's enough that it all be filled with that majestic sadness that is the pleasure of tragedy.

Crime, like virtue, has its degrees.

It's no longer a warmth hidden in my veins: it's Venus entire and whole fastening on her prey.

I have pushed virtue to outright brutality.

The heart that can no longer love passionately must with fury hate.

I am a man, and nothing that concerns a man do I deem a matter of indifference to me.

All is asleep: the army, the wind, and Neptune.

I cherished you inconstant; what would I have done, faithful? Now, even now, when your cruel mouth so calmly speaks my death sentence, I wonder, cold wretch, I wonder still, if I do not love you.

I embrace my rival, but only to strangle him.

There are no secrets that time does not reveal.

On the throne, one has many worries; and remorse is the one that weighs the least.

I have everything, yet have nothing; and although I possess nothing, still of nothing am I in want.

He who ruleth the raging of the sea, knows also how to check the designs of the ungodly. I submit myself with reverence to His Holy Will. O Abner, I fear my God, and I fear none but Him.

To repair the irreparable ravages of time.

The feeling of mistrust is always the last which a great mind acquires.

To save our imperiled honor everything must be sacrificed, even virtue.

Life is a comedy to those who think, a tragedy to those who feel.

I have loved him too much not to hate

It behooves a prudent person to make trial of everything before arms.

Love is not a fire to be shut up in a soul. Everything betrays us: voice, silence, eyes; half-covered fires burn all the brighter.

Many a time a man cannot be such as he would be, if circumstances do not admit of it.

Love is not dumb. The heart speaks many ways.

Extreme justice is often injustice.

Henceforth the majesty of God revere;Fear Him, and you have nothing else to fear.

Sir, that much prudence calls for too much worry; I cannot foresee misfortunes so far away.

Small crimes always precedes great ones.

None love, but they who wish to love.

The face of tyranny Is always mild at first.

The joys of the evil flow away like a torrent.

Have there ever been more submissive slaves? Adoring, even in their irons, the God who punishes them.

I will die if I lose you, but I will die if I wait longer.

And forever goodbye! Forever! Oh, Sir, can you imagine how dreadful this cruel word sounds when one loves?

Honor, without money, is a mere malady.

Is a faith without action a sincere faith?

Sun, I come to see you for the last time.

When I'm carried away, isn't it clear that my heart contradicts my mouth?

You who love wild passions, flee the holy austerity of my pleasures. All here breathes of God, peace and truth.

I can hear those glances that you think are silent.

Ah, why can't I know if I love, or if I hate?

Do you think you can be righteous and holy with impunity?

And do you count for nothing God who fights for us?

When will the veil be lifted that casts so black a night over the universe? God of Israel, lift at last the gloom: For how long will you be hidden?

What does it matter if, by chance, a little vile blood be spilled?

By dying I wanted to maintain my honor, and hide a flame so black from the daylight!

Hippolytus can feel, and feels nothing for me!

Often it is fatal to live too long.

He who bridles the fury of the billows knows also to put a stop to the secret plans of the wicked. Submitting with respect to His holy will, I fear God, and have no other fear.

Felicity is in possession, happiness in anticipation.

Small crimes always precede great crimes. Whoever has been able to transgress the limits set by law may afterwards violate the most sacred rights; crime, like virtue, has its degrees, and never have we seen timid innocence pass suddenly to extreme licentiousness.

A benefit cited by way of reproach is equivalent to an injury.

I loved you when you were unfaithful; what would I have done if you were true?

I felt for my crime a just terror; I looked on my life with hate, and my passion with horror.

You feign guilt in order to justify yourself.

The day is not purer than the depths of my heart.

Some smaller crimes always precede the great crimes.

The part I remember best is the beginning.

Wrinkles on the brow are the imprints of exploits.

Crime like virtue has its degrees; and timid innocence was never known to blossom suddenly into extreme license.

Behind a veil, unseen yet present, I was the forceful soul that moved this mighty body.

Now my innocence begins to weigh me down.

If I could believe that this was said sincerely, I could put up with anything.

Without money honor is merely a disease.

It is a maxim of old that among themselves all things are common to friends.

The glory of my name increases my shame. Less known by mortals, I could better escape their eyes.

Too much virtue can be criminal.

He who will travel far spares his steed.

Justice in the extreme is often unjust.

According as the man is, so must you humour him.

My only hope lies in my despair.

She wavers, she hesitates: in a word, she is a woman.

Vice, like virtue, Grows in small steps, and no true innocence Can ever fall at once to deepest guilt.

There may be guilt when there is too much virtue.

Pain is unjust, and all the arguments That cannot soothe it only rouse suspicion.

He who has far to ride spares his horse.

Les te moins sont fort chers, et n'en a pas qui veut. Witnesses are expensive and not everyone can afford them.

Ainsi que la vertu, le crime a ses degre s. Crime, like virtue, has its degrees.

Can a faith that does nothing be called sincere?

Small crimes always precede great ones. Never have we seen timid innocence pass suddenly to extreme licentiousness.

The faith that acts not, is it truly faith?

Great crimes come never singly; they are linked To sins that went before.

Innocence has nothing to dread.

Flight is lawful, when one flies from tyrants.

The crime of a mother is a heavy burden.

He who laughs on Friday will weep on Sunday.

Me, rule? Me, place the State under my law, when my feeble reason no longer rules even myself!