Beauty without intelligence is like a hook without bait.
MoliereRead
I always do the first line well, but I have trouble doing the others.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote reflects the challenges that creativity poses, highlighting how initial inspiration can be easier than maintaining momentum.
Molière's quote expresses a common struggle among artists and writers: the difficulty of sustaining creativity after the initial idea or inspiration. While starting strong can be exhilarating and motivating, continuing to produce quality work can be fraught with obstacles, leading to frustration and self-doubt. This sentiment resonates with anyone involved in creative endeavors, where the pressure to consistently perform can overshadow initial enthusiasm.
Themes
CreativityArtStruggleInspirationPerformance
In practice
Example use cases
Use this quote in a creative writing workshop to illustrate the common hurdles writers face.
More from Moliere
All quotes →Betrayed and wronged in everything, I’ll flee this bitter world where vice is king, And seek some spot unpeopled and apart Where I’ll be free to have an honest heart. - Molière, The Misanthrope
MoliereRead
Long is the road from conception to completion.
MoliereRead
Oh, I may be devout, but I am human all the same.
MoliereRead
Hypocrisy is a fashionable vice, and all fashionable vices pass for virtue.
MoliereRead
How easy love makes fools of us.
MoliereRead
Similar quotes
I don't remember when exactly I read my first comic book, but I do remember exactly how liberated and subversive I felt as a result.
Edward SaidRead
Good poets borrow, great poets steal
T. S. EliotRead
One wanted, she thought, dipping her brush deliberately, to be on a level with ordinary experience, to feel simply that's a chair, that's a table, and yet at the same time, It's a miracle, it's an ecstasy.
Virginia WoolfRead
Man must speak, then sing, then dance. The speaking is the brain, the thinking man. The singing is the emotion. The dancing is the Dionysian ecstasy which carries away all.
Isadora DuncanRead
Dogmatism of all kinds--scientific, economic, moral, as well as political--are threatened by the creative freedom of the artist. This is necessarily and inevitably so. We cannot escape our anxiety over the fact that the artists together with creative persons of all sorts, are the possible destroyer of our nicely ordered systems. (p. 76)
Rollo MayRead
Elegance is usually confused with superficiality, fashion, lack of depth. This is a serious mistake: human beings need to have elegance in their actions and in their posture because this word is synonymous with good taste, amiability, equilibrium and harmony.
Paulo CoelhoRead