The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations Preface

‘Le Tartuffe’ (performed 1664, published 1669) act 3, sc. 3
Le ciel dèfend, de vrai, certains contentements;
Mais on trouve avec lui des accommodements.
God, it is true, does some delights condemn,
But ’tis not hard to come to terms with Him.
‘Le Tartuffe’ (1669) act 4, sc. 5
Le scandale du monde est ce qui fait l’offense,
Et ce n’est pas pècher que pècher en silence.
It is public scandal that constitutes offence, and to sin in secret is not to sin at all.
‘Le Tartuffe’ (1669) act 4, sc. 5
L’homme est, je vous l’avoue, un mèchant animal.
Man, I can assure you, is a nasty creature.
‘Le Tartuffe’ (1669) act 5, sc. 6
Il m’est permis de reprendre mon bien oû je le trouve.
It is permitted me to take good fortune where I find it.
In J. L. Le Gallois ‘La Vie de Moliére’ (1704) p. 14
1.145 Mary Mollineux 1648-95
How sweet is harmless solitude!
What can its joys control?
Tumults and noise may not intrude,
To interrupt the soul.
‘Solitude’ (1670)
1.146 Helmuth Von Moltke 1800-91
Der ewige Friede ist ein Traum, und nicht einmal ein schöner und der Krieg ein Glied in Gottes
Weltordnung...Ohne den Krieg würde die Welt in Materialismus versumpfen.
Everlasting peace is a dream, and not even a pleasant one; and war is a necessary part of God’s
arrangement of the world...Without war the world would deteriorate into materialism.
Letter to Dr J. K. Bluntschli, 11 December 1880, in ‘Field-Marshall Count Helmuth von Moltke as a
Correspondent’ (1893) p. 272 (translation by Mary Herms)
1.147 Walter Mondale 1928—
See Cliff Freeman (6.81) in Volume I
1.148 William Cosmo Monkhouse 1840-1901
There once was an old man of Lyme
Who married three wives at a time,
When asked ‘Why a third?’
He replied, ‘One’s absurd!