Famous Jean De La Bruyère Quotations

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"No man is so perfect, so necessary to his friends, as to give them no cause to miss him less."
by Jean de la Bruyere
"Children have neither a past nor a future. Thus they enjoy the present-- which seldom happens to us."
by Jean de la Bruyere
"That man is good who does good to others if he suffers on account of the good he does, he is very good if he suffers at the hands of those to whom he has done good, then his goodness is so great that it could be enhanced only by greater sufferings and if he should die at their hands, his virtue can go no further it is heroic, it is perfect."
by Jean de la Bruyere
"Nothing more clearly show how little God esteems his gift to men of wealth, money, position and other wordly goods, than the way he distributes these, and the sort of men who are most amply provided with them."
by Jean de la Bruyere
"This great misfortune - to be incapable of solitude."
by Jean de la Bruyere
"There is no road too long to the man who advances deliberately and without undue haste there are no honors too distant to the man who prepares himself for them with patience."
by Jean de la Bruyere
"Discretion is the perfection of reason, and a guide to us in all the duties of life."
by Jean de la Bruyere
"We perceive when love begins and when it declines by our embarrassment when alone together."
by Jean de la Bruyere
"Life is a Tragedy for those who feel, and a comedy for those who think."
by Jean de La Bruyère
"A pious man is one who would be an athiest if the king were."
by Jean de La Bruyere
"Children have neither a past nor a future. Thus they enjoy the present - which seldom happens to us."
by Jean De La Bruyere
"Discourtesy does not spring merely from one bad quality, but from several--from foolish vanity, from ignorance of what is due to others, from indolence, from stupidity, from distraction of thought, from contempt of others, from jealousy."
by Jean de la Bruyere
"Don't wait to be happy to laugh... You may die and never have laughed"
by Jean de la Bruyere
"The slave has but one master, the ambitious man has as many as can help in making his fortune."
by Jean De La Bruyere
"There are only three events in a man's life birth, life, and death he is not conscious of being born, he dies in pain, and he forgets to live."
by Jean de la Bruyere
"There are only two ways by which to rise in this world, either by one's own industry or by the stupidity of others."
by Jean de la Bruyere
"We must laugh before we are happy, for fear we die before we laugh at all."
by Jean de La Bruyere
"It's motive alone which gives character to the actions of men."
by Jean De La Bruyere
"The wise person often shuns society for fear of being bored."
by Jean De La Bruyere
"Children enjoy the present because they have neither a past nor a future."
by Jean De La Bruyere
"Criticism is often not a science; it is a craft, requiring more good health than wit, more hard work than talent, more habit than native genius. In the hands of a man who has read widely but lacks judgment, applied to certain subjects it can corrupt both its readers and the writer himself."
by Jean De La Bruyere
"If some persons died, and others did not die, death would be a terrible affliction."
by Jean De La Bruyere
"You may drive a dog off the King's armchair, and it will climb into the preacher's pulpit; he views the world unmoved, unembarrassed, unabashed."
by Jean De La Bruyere
"The regeneration of society is the regeneration of society by individual education."
by Jean De La Bruyere
"The first day one is a guest, the second a burden, and the third a pest."
by Jean De La Bruyere
"Liberality consists less in giving a great deal than in gifts well-timed."
by Jean De La Bruyere
"Generosity lies less in giving much than in giving at the right moment."
by Jean De La Bruyere
"I would not like to see a person who is sober, moderate, chaste and just say that there is no God. They would speak disinterestedly at least, but such a person is not to be found."
by Jean De La Bruyere
"Grief at the absence of a loved one is happiness compared to life with a person one hates."
by Jean De La Bruyere
"Grief that is dazed and speechless is out of fashion: the modern woman mourns her husband loudly and tells you the whole story of his death, which distresses her so much that she forgets not the slightest detail about it."
by Jean De La Bruyere
"A position of eminence makes a great person greater and a small person less."
by Jean De La Bruyere
"Everything has been said, and we have come too late, now that men have been living and thinking for seven thousand years and more."
by Jean De La Bruyere
"Avoid lawsuits beyond all things; they pervert your conscience, impair your health, and dissipate your property."
by Jean De La Bruyere
"The court is like a palace of marble; it's composed of people very hard and very polished."
by Jean De La Bruyere
"All men's misfortunes spring from their hatred of being alone."
by Jean De La Bruyere
"We can recognize the dawn and the decline of love by the uneasiness we feel when alone together."
by Jean De La Bruyere
"To be among people one loves, that's sufficient; to dream, to speak to them, to be silent among them, to think of indifferent things; but among them, everything is equal."
by Jean De La Bruyere
"One seeks to make the loved one entirely happy, or, if that cannot be, entirely wretched."
by Jean De La Bruyere
"There are certain things in which mediocrity is intolerable: poetry, music, painting, public eloquence. What torture it is to hear a frigid speech being pompously declaimed, or second-rate verse spoken with all a bad poet's bombast!"
by Jean De La Bruyere
"The Opera is obviously the first draft of a fine spectacle; it suggests the idea of one."
by Jean De La Bruyere
"Lofty posts make great men greater still, and small men much smaller."
by Jean De La Bruyere
"A heap of epithets is poor praise: the praise lies in the facts, and in the way of telling them."
by Jean De La Bruyere
"Children have neither a past nor a future. Thus they enjoy the present -- which seldom happens to us."
by Jean De La Bruyere
"When a book raises your spirit, and inspires you with noble and manly thoughts, seek for no other test of its excellence. It is good, and made by a good workman."
by Jean De La Bruyere
"Mockery is often the result of a poverty of wit."
by Jean De La Bruyere
"All of our unhappiness comes from our inability to be alone."
by Jean De La Bruyere
"We are valued in this world at the rate we desire to be valued."
by Jean De La Bruyere
"Outward simplicity befits ordinary men, like a garment made to measure for them; but it serves as an adornment to those who have filled their lives with great deeds: they might be compared to some beauty carelessly dressed and thereby all the more attractive."
by Jean De La Bruyere
"One mark of a second-rate mind is to be always telling stories."
by Jean De La Bruyere
"Between good sense and good taste there lies the difference between a cause and its effect."
by Jean De La Bruyere
"A man of the world must seem to be what he wishes to be thought."
by Jean De La Bruyere
"Marriage, it seems, confines every man to his proper rank."
by Jean De La Bruyère
"We should keep silent about those in power; to speak well of them almost implies flattery; to speak ill of them while they are alive is danger..."
by Jean De La Bruyère


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