There are people who resemble popular songs: they are sung for a time and then forgotten.
[Il y a des gens qui ressemblent aux vaudevilles, qu’on ne chante qu’un certain temps.]
François VI, duc de La Rochefoucauld (1613–1680) French epigrammatist, memoirist, noble
Réflexions ou sentences et maximes morales [Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims], ¶211 (1665-1678) [tr. FitzGibbon (1957)]
(Source)
The manuscripts of some early editions included a clause about those popular songs being distasteful (as seen in some of the translations below), but the phrase was not in the final (1678) edition:[Il y a des gens qui ressemblent aux vaudevilles, que tout le monde chante un certain temps, quelques fades et dégoûtants qu’ils soient.]
(Source (French)). Other translations:There are a sort of people may be compar'd to those trivial Songs, which all are in an humour to sing for a certain time, how flat and distasteful soever they may be.
[tr. Davies (1669), ¶64]Some Men are like Ballads, that every body Sings at one time or other, though they be never so dull and insipid.
[tr. Stanhope (1694), ¶212]There are people who, like new songs, are in vogue only for a time.
[pub. Donaldson (1783), ¶454; ed. Lepoittevin-Lacroix (1797), ¶202]There are those, who, like new songs, are favourites only for a time.
[ed. Carvill (1835), ¶491]Some people resemble ballads, which are only sung for a certain time.
[ed. Gowens (1851), ¶220]There are people who are like farces, which are praised but for a time (however foolish and distasteful they may be).
[tr. Bund/Friswell (1871), ¶211]Some people are like rag-time -- their popularity is short-lived.
[tr. Heard (1917), ¶216]Some people are like popular songs, which are sung only for a season.
[tr. Stevens (1939), ¶211]Some people are like a popular song, taken up only for a time.
[tr. Kronenberger (1959), ¶211]Some people are like popular songs that you only sing for a short time.
[tr. Tancock (1959), ¶211]There are people who resemble certain kinds of popular music, which are sung only for a certain time, however insipid and disgusting they may be, and then forgotten.
[tr. Whichello (2016) ¶211]
Quotations about:
types
Note not all quotations have been tagged, so Search may find additional quotes on this topic.
There may be said to be two classes of people in the world: those who constantly divide the people of the world into two classes, and those who do not.
Robert Benchley (1889–1945) American humorist, columnist, actor, wit
Of All Things, ch. 20 “The Most Popular Book of the Month” (1921)
(Source)
