WIST Quotations https://wist.info Wish I'd Said That! Thu, 09 Jul 2026 21:51:02 +0000 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 https://wist.info/wp/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/little-w-little-box-60x60.jpg dangling – WIST Quotations https://wist.info 32 32 43606282 Racine, Jean -- Fragments Historiques [tr. Bund/Friswell (1871)] https://wist.info/racine-jean/78506/ https://wist.info/racine-jean/78506/#respond Tue, 19 Aug 2025 22:50:27 +0000 Dave https://wist.info/?p=78506 The reason why the Cardinal [Mazarin] deferred so long to grant the favors he had promised, was because he was persuaded that hope was much more capable of keeping men to their duty than gratitude.

[La raison pourquoi le Cardinal différoit tant à accorder les grâces qu’il avoit promises, c’est qu’il étoit persuadé que l’espérance est bien plus capable de retenir les hommes dans le devoir que non pas la reconnoissance.]


Jean Racine (1639-1699) French dramatist
Fragments Historiques [tr. Bund/Friswell (1871)]
    (Source)

(Source (French)).

This phrase is quoted by commenters on La Rochefoucauld in conjunction with his Maxim 38. ]]> https://wist.info/racine-jean/78506/feed/ 0 78506