# The most famous lines of Corneille's Le Cid

'Rodrigue, have you a heart?', 'O rage! O despair!', 'Go, I do not hate you': the lines from Le Cid (1637) that everyone in France knows by heart, checked against the text, with act, scene and speaker.

- 3 votes · 13 items
- Aug 24, 2025 · Noémie Faure
- https://even.best/en/l/4663/the-most-famous-lines-of-corneille-s-le-cid

## Top 13

1. **Rodrigue, have you a heart?** (1 · ▲1 ▼0) — Act I, scene 5, Don Diègue to his son.
2. **Go, run, fly, and avenge us.** (1 · ▲1 ▼0) — Act I, scene 5, Don Diègue.
3. **Pierced to the depths of my heart by a blow as unforeseen as it is mortal…** (1 · ▲1 ▼0) — Act I, scene 6, Rodrigue's stanzas.
4. **However great kings may be, they are what we are: they can make mistakes like other men.** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — Act I, scene 3, the Count.
5. **O rage! O despair! O old age, my enemy! Have I lived so long only for this disgrace?** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — Act I, scene 4, Don Diègue.
6. **I am young, it is true; but in well-born souls valour does not wait for the number of years.** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — Act II, scene 2, Rodrigue to the Count.
7. **To win without danger is to triumph without glory.** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — Act II, scene 2, the Count.
8. **I do not accuse you; I weep for my misfortunes.** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — Act III, scene 4, Chimène to Rodrigue.
9. **Go, I do not hate you.** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — Act III, scene 4, Chimène to Rodrigue.
10. **We set out five hundred; but with swift reinforcements we were three thousand by the time we reached the port.** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — Act IV, scene 3, Rodrigue's account.
11. **That dark light that falls from the stars…** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — Act IV, scene 3, Rodrigue's account.
12. **And the battle ended for lack of fighters.** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — Act IV, scene 3, Rodrigue's account.
13. **Leave it to time, your valour and your king.** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — Act V, scene 7, the King, the last line of the play.

How is this ranking ordered? By people's votes: each ▲ adds a point and each ▼ takes one away. Anyone can vote and add what is missing.