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"There, take," says Justice, "take ye each a shell;
We thrive at Westminster on fools like you.
'T was a fat oyster! live in peace,—adieu."

— Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux

Tenez, voilà, dit-elle, à chacun une écaille.
Des sottises d'autrui nous vivons au palais :
Messieurs, l'huître était bonne. Adieu. Vivez en paix.

Original text (French)

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Source and credibility

Wikiquote does not flag this quote as disputed or misattributed.

Source: Epître ii, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919); translation by Alexander Pope, Verbatim from Boileau.
Source quality: Secondhand citation Quoted from another book or article rather than from the original.

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Let him now speak, or else hereafter for ever hold his peace.

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Can such bitterness enter into the heart of the devout?

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Topics

Justice

More quotes by Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux

Honor is like an island, rugged and without a beach; once we have left it, we can never return.

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Time flies and draws us with it. The moment in which I am speaking is already far from me.

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Hasten slowly, and without losing heart,
Put your work twenty times upon the anvil.

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Happy the poet who with ease can steer
From grave to gay, from lively to severe.

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Every age has its pleasures, its style of wit, and its own ways.

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Attribution

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