Jean Racine
Jean Racine
Jean Racine, baptismal name Jean-Baptiste Racine, was a French dramatist, one of the three great playwrights of 17th-century France, and an important literary figure in the Western tradition. Racine was primarily a tragedian, producing such "examples of neoclassical perfection" as Phèdre, Andromaque, and Athalie, although he did write one comedy, Les Plaideurs, and a muted tragedy, Esther, for the young...
NationalityFrench
ProfessionPlaywright
Date of Birth22 December 1639
CountryFrance
It is a maxim of old that among themselves all things are common to friends.
Thank the Gods! My misery exceeds all my hopes!
Honor, without money, is a mere malady.
He who will travel far spares his steed.
According as the man is, so must you humour him.
Hell, covering all with its gloomy vapors, has cast shadows on even the holiest eyes.
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.
I embrace my rival, but only to strangle him.
I have loved him too much not to hate
A single word often betrays a great design.
Is a faith without action a sincere faith?
Justice in the extreme is often unjust.
I have pushed virtue to outright brutality.
Me, rule? Me, place the State under my law, when my feeble reason no longer rules even myself!