Skip to content

'Tis true enough, though it may seem absurd,
That literal rendering is not true translating.
He who his author follows word by word,
Is but a footman on his master waiting.

— Ponce Denis Écouchard Lebrun Dictionary of Quotations: French and Italian (1904)

Le plus fidèle traducteur
Est celui qui semble moins l'être.
Qui suit pas à pas son auteur,
N'est qu'un valet qui suit son maître.

Original text (French)

Another quote →

Notes from Wikiquote

p. 133

More quotes by Ponce Denis Écouchard Lebrun

Nothing more foolish is than foolish laughter.

Dictionary of Quotations: French and Italian (1904)

Those glorious days, when man said to man,
Let us be brothers, or I will knock you down.

New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922)

Talent is the god of moments,
Genius is the god of ages.

Dictionary of Quotations: French and Italian (1904)

Chloe, poetess and beauty, is in two small things perverse;
She makes up her own complexion, but she writes not her own verse.

Dictionary of Quotations: French and Italian (1904)

The butterfly is a flying flower,
The flower a tethered butterfly.

Dictionary of Quotations: French and Italian (1904)

All Ponce Denis Écouchard Lebrun quotes →

Attribution

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