1636-1711, French Literary Poet, Critic
A fool always finds a greater fool to admire him.
Nicholas Boileau – [Fools and Foolishness]
Attach yourself to those who advise you rather than praise you.
Nicholas Boileau – [Praise]
Greatest fools are the most often satisfied.
Nicholas Boileau – [Fools and Foolishness]
He who cannot limit himself will never know how to write.
Nicholas Boileau – [Writers and Writing]
Honor is like an island, rugged and without a beach; once we have left it, we can never return.
Nicholas Boileau – [Honor]
However big the fool, there is always a bigger fool to admire him.
Nicholas Boileau – [Fools and Foolishness]
If your descent is from heroic sires, show in your life a remnant of their fires.
Nicholas Boileau – [Ancestry]
No one who cannot limit himself has ever been able to write.
Nicholas Boileau – [Writers and Writing]
Praising an honest person who doesn't deserve it, always wounds them.
Nicholas Boileau – [Praise]
Some excel in rhyme who reason foolishly.
Nicholas Boileau – [Reason]
The wisest man is he who does not fancy that he is so at all.
Nicholas Boileau – [Wisdom]
What is conceived well is expressed clearly.
Nicholas Boileau – [Simplicity]