Tartuffe Quotes

“Beauty without intelligence is like a hook without bait.”
― Molière, Tartuffe

“You are my peace, my solace, my salvation.”
― Molière, Tartuffe

“Malicious men may die, but malice never.”
― Molière, Tartuffe

“Its as if you think you'd never find
Reason and the Sacred intertwined”
― Molière, Tartuffe

“Why put yourself in charge of Heaven's cause?
Does Heaven need our help to enforce its laws?”
― Molière, Tartuffe

“It’s a veritable Tower of Babylon, The way you people babble on.”
― Molière, Tartuffe: Full Text and Introduction

“I marvel at your power to be mistaken.”
― Molière, Tartuffe

“Evil exists only when its known. Adam and Eve were public in their fall. To sin in private is not to sin at all”
― Molière, Tartuffe

“I'm all amazed, befuddled, and beflustered!”
― Molière, Tartuffe

“true heroes never are the ones Who make much noise about their deeds”
― Molière, Tartuffe

“MADAME PERNELLE. My dear, appearances are oft deceiving, And seeing shouldn't always be believing.”
― Molière, Tartuffe

“DORINE. Then what's your plan about this other match? MARIANE. To kill myself, if it is forced upon me. DORINE. Good! That's a remedy I hadn't thought of. Just die, and everything will be all right. This medicine is marvellous, indeed! It drives me mad to hear folk talk such nonsense. MARIANE. Oh dear, Dorine you get in such a temper! You have no sympathy for people's troubles. DORINE. I have no sympathy when folk talk nonsense, And flatten out as you do, at a pinch.”
― Molière, Tartuffe

“Contre la médisance il n'est point de rempart.”
― Molière, Tartuffe

“And self-conceit leads straight to self-deceit.”
― Molière, Tartuffe

“The public scandal is what brings offence, And secret sinning is not sin at all.”
― Molière, Tartuffe

“CLEANTE. Spoke like a true young man. Now just calm down, And moderate your towering tantrums, will you? We live in such an age, with such a king, That violence can not advance our cause.”
― Molière, Tartuffe

“TARTUFFE. If Heaven is all that stands now in my way, I'll easily remove that little hindrance; Your heart need not hold back for such a trifle.”
― Molière, Tartuffe

“CLEANTE. That is the usual strain of all your kind; They must have every one as blind as they. They call you atheist if you have good eyes; And if you don't adore their vain grimaces, You've neither faith nor care for sacred things. No, no; such talk can't frighten me; I know What I am saying; heaven sees my heart. We're not the dupes of all your canting mummers; There are false heroes—and false devotees; And as true heroes never are the ones Who make much noise about their deeds of honour, Just so true devotees, whom we should follow, Are not the ones who make so much vain show. What! Will you find no difference between Hypocrisy and genuine devoutness? And will you treat them both alike, and pay The self-same honour both to masks and faces Set artifice beside sincerity, Confuse the semblance with reality, Esteem a phantom like a living person, And counterfeit as good as honest coin? Men, for the most part, are strange creatures, truly! You never find them keep the golden mean; The limits of good sense, too narrow for them, Must always be passed by, in each direction; They often spoil the noblest things, because They go too far, and push them to extremes. I merely say this by the way, good brother.”
― Molière, Tartuffe

“He always wanted to return a part. "It is too much," he'd say, "too much by half; I am not worthy of your pity." Then, When I refused to take it back, he'd go, Before my eyes, and give it to the poor.”
― Molière, Tartuffe

“ما أصلح هذه السيدة!
الحق يقال انها تعيش في زهد وورع؛
ولكنه التقدم في السن هو الذي دفعها الى ذلك.
إنها تتنسك ولا تسمح لأحد بأن يمس جسدها.
لقد تمتعت بمحاسنها ما استطاعت أن تجذب القلوب وتغريها؛
ولكنها حين رأت ذبول عينيها وزوال بهجتها
زهدت في الدنيا التي أعرضت عنها ،
وأخفت جمالها الذاوي وراء نقاب الحكمة الجليل.

تلك هي تقلبات ذوات الغنج في عصرنا هذا:
يشق عليهن هجر الظرفاء المحبين لهن
فلا يجدن ملاذا في ظلام همومهن
إلا باحتراف التقى والفضيلة
ولقد بلغت قسوة تلك النساء الصالحات
ان رحن ينددن بكل شيء ولا يتجاوزن عن شيء:
فهن ينتقدن جهارا سلوك كل إنسان،
لا عن تقوى وصلاح ولكن بدافع من الحسد
الذي يأبى على الآخرين الاستمتاع بلذات
فطمهن تقادم السن عنها”
― Molière, Tartuffe

“DORINE. By my faith, With such a fine broad back, good Mr. Loyal, A little beating would become you well. MR. LOYAL. My girl, such infamous words are actionable. And warrants can be issued against women.”
― Molière, Tartuffe

“To give good colour to his acts against you;”
― Molière, Tartuffe

“MADAME PERNELLE. For slanderers abound in calumnies . . . ORGON. Mother, you'd make me damn my soul. I tell you I saw with my own eyes his shamelessness. MADAME PERNELLE. Their tongues for spitting venom never lack, There's nothing here below they'll not attack. ORGON. Your speech has not a single grain of sense. I saw it, harkee, saw it, with these eyes I saw—d'ye know what saw means?—must I say it A hundred times, and din it in your ears?”
― Molière, Tartuffe

“That virtue here below is hated ever; The envious may die, but envy never.”
― Molière, Tartuffe

“What! Just because a rascal boldly duped you With pompous show of false austerity, Must you needs have it everybody's like him, And no one's truly pious nowadays?”
― Molière, Tartuffe

“ELMIRE. But they affright us so with Heaven's commands! TARTUFFE. I can dispel these foolish fears, dear madam; I know the art of pacifying scruples Heaven forbids, 'tis true, some satisfactions; But we find means to make things right with Heaven.”
― Molière, Tartuffe

“Oh, do not make me, by your harsh command, Complain to Heaven you ever were my father; Do not make wretched this poor life you gave me.”
― Molière, Tartuffe

“CLEANTE. Eh, sir, give up these conscientious scruples That well may cause a rightful heir's complaints. Don't take so much upon yourself, but let him Possess what's his, at his own risk and peril; Consider, it were better he misused it, Than you should be accused of robbing him. I am astounded that unblushingly You could allow such offers to be made! Tell me—has true religion any maxim That teaches us to rob the lawful heir? If Heaven has made it quite impossible Damis and you should live together here, Were it not better you should quietly And honourably withdraw, than let the son Be driven out for your sake, dead against All reason? 'Twould be giving, sir, believe me, Such an example of your probity . . .”
― Molière, Tartuffe

“ORGON. Just Heaven! Can what I hear be credited? TARTUFFE. Yes, brother, I am wicked, I am guilty, A miserable sinner, steeped in evil, The greatest criminal that ever lived. Each moment of my life is stained with soilures; And all is but a mass of crime and filth; Heaven, for my punishment, I see it plainly, Would mortify me now. Whatever wrong They find to charge me with, I'll not deny it But guard against the pride of self-defence. Believe their stories, arm your wrath against me, And drive me like a villain from your house; I cannot have so great a share of shame But what I have deserved a greater still.”
― Molière, Tartuffe

“TARTUFFE. Love for the beauty of eternal things Cannot destroy our love for earthly beauty;”
― Molière, Tartuffe