Jean Racine

Jean Racine (December 22, 1639 – April 21, 1699) was a French dramatist, one of the "big three" of 17th century France (along with Molière and Pierre Corneille). Racine was primarily a tragedian, though he did write one comedy.

• Je l'ai trop aimé pour ne le point haïr!
  • I loved him too much not to hate him at all!
    • Hermione, act II, scene I.

• Derrière un voile, invisible et présente,
  J'étais de ce grand corps l'âme toute-puissante.
  • Behind a veil, unseen yet present,
    I was the forceful soul that moved this mighty body.
    • Agrippine, Britannicus, (1669), act I, scene I.

• Ce que je sais le mieux, c'est mon commencement.
  • What I know best is the beginning (of my speech).
    • Petit Jean, the porter, Act III, scene III.
    • Classical and Foreign Quotations, 3rd ed. (1904), no. 274

• Vous êtes empereur, Seigneur, et vous pleurez!
  • You are Emperor, my lord, and yet you weep?
    • Bérénice, act IV, scene V.

• Mon unique espérance est dans mon désespoir.
  • My only hope lies in my despair.
    • Atalide, act I, scene IV.

• Jamais on ne vaincra les Romains que dans Rome.
  • Never will the Romans be conquered but in Rome.
    • Mithridates, act III, scene I.
    • Classical and Foreign Quotations, 3rd ed. (1904), no. 1160

• Un bienfait reproché tient toujours lieu d’offense.
  • To reproach a man with favours conferred is tantamount to an affront.
    • Agamemnon, act IV, scene VI.
    • Classical and Foreign Quotations, 3rd ed. (1904), no. 220

• Tout m'afflige et me nuit, et conspire à me nuire.
  • All afflicts and injures me, and conspires to my injury.
    • Phèdre, act I, scene III.

• Ariane, ma sœur, de quel amour blessée,
  Vous mourûtes aux bords où vous fûtes laissée.
  • Ariane, my sister, wounded by what love,
    You died on the shores where you were abandoned.
    • Phèdre, act I, scene III.

• C'est toi qui l'as nommé.
  • You have named him, not I.
    • Phèdre, act I, scene III.

• Ce n'est plus une ardeur dans mes veines cachée:
  C'est Vénus tout entière à sa proie attachée.
  • It is no longer a passion hidden in my heart:
    It is Venus herself fastened to her prey.
    • Phèdre, act I, scene III.

• L'innocence enfin n'a rien à redouter.
  • Innocence has nothing to dread.
    • Hippolyte, act III, scene VI.

• Ainsi que la vertu, le crime a ses dégrés;
  Et jamais on n'a vu la timide innocence
  Passer subitement à l'extrême licence.
  • Crime, like virtue, has its degrees;
    And timid innocence was never known
    To blossom suddenly into extreme license.
    • Hippolyte, act IV, scene II.

• Pour réparer des ans l'irréparable outrage.
  • To repair the irreparable ravages of time.
    • Athalie, act II, scene V.

• Aux petits des oiseaux il donne leur pâture,
  Et sa bonté s’étend sur toute la nature.
  • For the hungry young nestlings His providence fends,
    And over all nature His goodness extends.
    • Joas, act II, scene VII.
    • The parody of the second line, Mais sa bonté s’arrête à la littérature, ("But His bounty draws the line at authors"), is ascribed to Léon Gozlan in Maxime du Camp’s Souvenirs Littéraires, i, 226. R. Alexandre, Musée de la Conversation, 3rd ed. (1897), p. 353. W. F. H. King, Classical and Foreign Quotations, 3rd ed. (1904), no. 201

• Hâtons-nous aujourd'hui de jouir de la vie.
  Qui sait si nous serons demain?
  • Today, let us make haste to enjoy life.
    Who knows if we will be tomorrow?
    • Athalie, act II, scene IX.

• Dieu des Juifs, tu l'emportes!
  • God of the Jews, you prevail!
    • Athalie, act V, scene VI.

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Jean Racine

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Jean Racine

• Works by Jean Racine at Project Gutenberg
• Jean Racine at French Wikisource