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Daily Inspiration Quote by Moliere

"There's nothing quite like tobacco: it's the passion of decent folk, and whoever lives without tobacco doesn't deserve to live"

About this Quote

Moliere doesn’t just praise tobacco here; he turns a fashionable vice into a mock-moral credential, the way his comedies often turn social habits into pseudo-religions. “Passion of decent folk” is the tell: decency is supposed to be about restraint, yet he crowns a compulsive pleasure as the badge of respectability. The joke lands because it exposes how easily “good society” launders appetite into virtue when the right people are doing it.

The second clause sharpens into deliberate overkill: “whoever lives without tobacco doesn’t deserve to live.” That extremity is classic comic inflation, a parody of absolute statements usually reserved for faith, honor, or patriotism. Moliere is ventriloquizing the zealot’s voice, letting a small luxury borrow the rhetoric of salvation. The line winks at the audience: if you’ve ever heard someone defend a habit with the fervor of a philosopher-king, you recognize the type immediately.

Context matters. In 17th-century France, tobacco was a New World novelty turned craze, wrapped in medical claims and courtly chic. Its spread created the perfect target for satire: a commodity that could be sold as health, status, and sophistication all at once. Moliere uses it as a prop to show how culture manufactures “needs,” then recruits morality to police them. The punchline isn’t anti-tobacco so much as anti-pretension: a reminder that society’s “decencies” are often just addictions with better branding.

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TopicWitty One-Liners
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APA Style (7th ed.)
Moliere. (n.d.). There's nothing quite like tobacco: it's the passion of decent folk, and whoever lives without tobacco doesn't deserve to live. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/theres-nothing-quite-like-tobacco-its-the-passion-12639/

Chicago Style
Moliere. "There's nothing quite like tobacco: it's the passion of decent folk, and whoever lives without tobacco doesn't deserve to live." FixQuotes. Accessed February 3, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/theres-nothing-quite-like-tobacco-its-the-passion-12639/.

MLA Style (9th ed.)
"There's nothing quite like tobacco: it's the passion of decent folk, and whoever lives without tobacco doesn't deserve to live." FixQuotes, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/theres-nothing-quite-like-tobacco-its-the-passion-12639/. Accessed 3 Feb. 2026.

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Theres nothing quite like tobacco: the passion of decent folk - Moliere
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About the Author

Moliere

Moliere (January 15, 1622 - February 17, 1673) was a Playwright from France.

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