The wisest man is he who does not fancy that he is so at all. Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux More Quotes by Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux More Quotes From Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux It is in vain a daring author thinks of attaining to the heights of Parnassus if he does not feel the secret influence of heaven and if his natal star has not formed him to be a poet. Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux stars heaven thinking