Antoine Houdar de la Motte

Antoine Houdar de la Motte (18 January 1672 – 26 December 1731) was a French poet and dramatist.

Quotes

• Des états la sombre origine,
  Les progrès, l’éclat, la ruine
  Repassent encore sous nos yeux;
  Et, présens à tout, nous y sommes
  Contemporains de tous les horames,
  Et citoyens de tous les lieux.
  • The birth obscure of every nation,
    Its progress, glory, degradation
    Before our eyes thou dost unfold,
    And, recking nought of time, we stand
    Coeval with the great of old,
    And citizens of every land.
  • Ode à Messieurs de L’Académie Française, as reported by T. B. Harbottle and P. H. Dalbiac, Dictionary of Quotations: French and Italian (1904), p. 40
  • Voltaire misquotes line 4 thus: "C’est par l’étude que nous sommes", &c.

• L'instant de notre naissance
  Fut pour nous un arrêt de mort.
• The moment of our birth
  Did on us the death sentence pass.
  • A Délius, as reported by Harbottle (1904), p. 41

• Le Besoin, père de l'Adresse.
  • Need, the father of Dexterity.
  • Astrée, as reported by Harbottle (1904), p. 122
  • Cp. Necessity is the mother of invention

• (Partout l'œeil surpris admire)
  Un désordre plein de beauté.
  • The wondering gaze doth everywhere admire
    A beauteous disorder.
  • Pindare aux Enfers, as reported by Harbottle (1904), p. 226
  • Cp. Robert Herrick, "Delight in Disorder"

• Tout est dit, tout devient commun.
  Les Conquérans voudroient un nouveau monde;
  C'est aux Rimeurs qu'il en faut un.
  • All's commonplace, all has been said before.
    Great conquerors have cried for a new world,
    But, as I think, the Rhymesters need one more.
  • Fables Nouvelles, II, 5, 13, as reported by Harbottle (1904), p. 218
  • Cp. the apocryphal statement of Alexander the Great: "There are no more worlds to conquer!"

• La Providence est la commune mère.
  Fiez-vous-y: mais ne la tentez pas.
  • Providence is the mother of us all.
    Put, then, your trust in her; but tempt her not.
  • Fables Nouvelles, II, 16, 30, as reported by Harbottle (1904), p. 115

• Eh! sot! que n'attends-tu, pour les accommoder,
  Que les gens sont las de se battre?
  • You fool! before you try to make the peace,
    Wait till they're tired of fighting.
  • Fables Nouvelles, III, 17, 40, as reported by Harbottle (1904), p. 45

• Dès qu'on est homme il faut faillir.
  • Man, being man, is bound to err.
  • Fables Nouvelles, IV, 12, 27, as reported by Harbottle (1904), p. 41

• (Donnez le même esprit aux hommes;
  Vous ôtez tout le sel de la société.)
  L’Ennui nâcquit un jour de l’Uniformité.
  • Give to all men the same intelligence,
    The salt you banish of society.
    Boredom was born one day of Uniformity.
  • Fables Nouvelles, IV, 15, 36, as reported by Harbottle (1904), p. 91

• La Haine veille et I'Amitié s'endort.
  • Hatred watches while Friendship sleeps.
  • Fables Nouvelles, V, 4, 23, as reported by Harbottle (1904), p. 108