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As great as kings may be, they are what we are: they can err like other men.

— Pierre Corneille Le Cid (1636)

Pour grands que soient les rois, ils sont ce que nous sommes:
Ils peuvent se tromper comme les autres hommes.

Original text (French)

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Notes from Wikiquote

Don Gomès, act I, scene iii.

More quotes by Pierre Corneille

Brave men are brave from the very first.

Le Cid (1636)

Oh, how sweet it is to pity the fate of an enemy, when we have no longer anything to fear from him!

La Mort de Pompée (1643)

Who is all-powerful should fear everything.

Cinna (1641)

He who is insulted has a right to be outraged, as unpunished audacity only increases!

The crime and not the scaffold makes the shame.

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Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Pierre Corneille (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.