Jean De La Bruyere Quotes & Sayings

If a secret is revealed, the person who has confided it to another is to be blamed. — 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. — Jean De La Bruyere

Women run to extremes, they are either better or worse than men. — 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 — Jean De La Bruyere

To what excesses do men rush for the sake of religion, of whose truth they are so little persuaded, and to whose precepts they pay so little regard! — Jean De La Bruyere

When we have run through all forms of government, without partiality to that we were born under, we are at a loss with which to side; they are all a compound of good and evil. It is therefore most reasonable and safe to value that of our own country above all others, and to submit to it. — Jean De La Bruyere

When a work lifts your spirits and inspires bold and noble thoughts in you, do not look for any other standard to judge by: the work is good, the product of a master craftsman. — Jean De La Bruyere

Caprice in women often infringes upon the rules of decency. — Jean De La Bruyere

A woman is easily governed, if a man takes her in hand. — Jean De La Bruyere

I do not doubt but that genuine piety is the spring of peace of mind; it enables us to bear the sorrows of life, and lessens the pangs of death: the same cannot be said of hypocrisy. — Jean De La Bruyere

We seldom repent of speaking little, very often of speaking too much: a vulgar and trite maxim, which all the world knows and, but which all the world does not practice — Jean De La Bruyere

The court is like a palace of marble; it's composed of people very hard and very polished. — Jean De La Bruyere

To make a book is as much a trade as to make a clock; something more than intelligence is required to become an author. — Jean De La Bruyere

A person's worth in this world is estimated according to the value he puts on himself. — Jean De La Bruyere

False glory is the rock of vanity; it seduces men to affect esteem by things which they indeed possess, but which are frivolous, and which for a man to value himself on would be a scandalous error. — Jean De La Bruyere

A great mind is above insults, injustice, grief, and raillery, and would be invulnerable were it not open to compassion. — Jean De La Bruyere

There are three great events in our lives: birth, life and death. Of birth we have no conscience; with death, we suffer; and, concerning life, we forget to live it. — Jean De La Bruyere

A vain man finds it wise to speak good or ill of himself; a modest man does not talk of himself. — Jean De La Bruyere

False modesty is the refinement of vanity. It is a lie. — Jean De La Bruyere

It is a fool's privilege to laugh at an intelligent man. — 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. — Jean De La Bruyere

Politeness does not always inspire goodness, equity, complaisance, and gratitude; it gives at least the appearance of these qualities, and makes man appear outwardly, as he should be within. — Jean De La Bruyere

Children enjoy the present because they have neither a past nor a future. — Jean De La Bruyere

All confidence placed in another is dangerous if it is not perfect, for on almost all occasions we ought to tell everything or to conceal everything. We have already told too much of our secret, if one single circumstance is to be kept back. — Jean De La Bruyere

We seek our happiness outside ourselves, and in the opinion of men we know to be flatterers, insincere, unjust, full of envy, caprice and prejudice. — Jean De La Bruyere

Profound ignorance makes a man dogmatic. The man who knows nothing thinks he is teaching others what he has just learned himself; the man who knows a great deal can't imagine that what he is saying is not common knowledge, and speaks more indifferently. — Jean De La Bruyere

If women were by nature what they make themselves by art; if they were to lose suddenly all the freshness of their complexion, and their faces to become as fiery and as leaden as they make them with the red and the paint they besmear themselves with, they would consider themselves the most wretched creatures on earth. — Jean De La Bruyere

How much wit, good-nature, indulgences, how many good offices and civilities, are required among friends to accomplish in some years what a lovely face or a fine hand does in a minute! — Jean De La Bruyere

It is because of men that women dislike one another. — Jean De La Bruyere

The punishment of a criminal is an example to the rabble; but every decent man is concerned if an innocent person is condemned. — Jean De La Bruyere

One should never risk a joke, even of the mildest and most unexceptional charters, except among people of culture and wit. — Jean De La Bruyere

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 dangerous, and when they are dead is cowardly. — Jean De La Bruyere

A man's worth is estimated in this world according to his conduct. — Jean De La Bruyere

To give awkwardly is churlishness. The most difficult part is to give, then why not add a smile? — Jean De La Bruyere

Let us not envy a certain class of men for their enormous riches; they have paid such an equivalent for them that it would not suit us; they have given for them their peace of mind, their health, their honour, and their conscience; this is rather too dear, and there is nothing to be made out of such a bargain. — Jean De La Bruyere

People reveal their character even in the simplest things they do. Fools do not enter a room, nor leave it, nor sit down, nor rise, nor are they silent, nor do they stand up, like people of sense and understanding. — Jean De La Bruyere

The spendthrift robs his heirs the miser robs himself. — Jean De La Bruyere

He who has lived a day has lived an age. — Jean De La Bruyere

I am told so many ill things of a man, and I see so few in him, that I begin to suspect he has a real but troublesome merit, as being likely to eclipse that of others. — Jean De La Bruyere

Courtly manners are contagious; they are caught at Versailles. — Jean De La Bruyere

We seldom repent talking little, but very often talking too much. — Jean De La Bruyere

The first day one is a guest, the second a burden, and the third a pest. — Jean De La Bruyere

Nothing is easier for passion than to overcome reason, but the greatest triumph is to conquer a man's own interests. — Jean De La Bruyere

Logic is the art of convincing us some truth. — Jean De La Bruyere

The same amount of pride which makes a man treat haughtily his inferiors, makes him cringe servilely; to those above him. — Jean De La Bruyere

Caprice in woman is the antidote to beauty. — Jean De La Bruyere

A blockhead cannot come in, nor go away, nor sit, nor rise, nor stand, like a man of sense. — Jean De La Bruyere

We must laugh before we are happy, for fear of dying without having laughed at all. — Jean De La Bruyere

It is in vain to ridicule a rich fool, for the laughers will be on his side. — Jean De La Bruyere

There are but two ways of rising in the world: either by one's own industry or profiting by the foolishness of others.
[Fr., Il n'y a au monde que deux manieres de s'elever, ou par sa propre industrie, ou par l'imbecilite des autres.] — Jean De La Bruyere

What can be more discouraging to a man than to doubt if his soul be material, like a stone or a reptile, and subject to corruption like the vilest creatures? And does it not prove much more strength of mind and grandeur to be able to conceive the idea of a Being superior to all other beings, by whom and for whom all things were made ; of a Being absolutely perfect and pure, without beginning or end, of whom our soul is the image, and of whom, if I may say so, it is a part, because it is spiritual and immortal? — Jean De La Bruyere

Man makes up his mind he will preach, and he preaches. — Jean De La Bruyere

If our life is unhappy it is painful to bear; if it is happy it is horrible to lose, So the one is pretty equal to the other. — Jean De La Bruyere

It is virtue which should determine us in the choice of our friends, without inquiring into their good or evil fortune. — Jean De La Bruyere

Profane eloquence is transfered from the bar, where Le Maitre, Pucelle, and Fourcroy formerly practised it, and where it has become obsolete, to the Pulpit, where it is out of place. — Jean De La Bruyere

No vice exists which does not pretend to be more or less like some virtue, and which does not take advantage of this assumed resemblance. — Jean De La Bruyere

Children have neither a past nor a future. Thus they enjoy the present, which seldom happens to us. — Jean De La Bruyere

Among some people arrogance supplies the place of grandeur, inhumanity of decision, and roguery of intelligence. — Jean De La Bruyere

When a secret is revealed, it is the fault of the man who confided it. — Jean De La Bruyere

The best way to get on in the world is to make people believe it's to their advantage to help you. — Jean De La Bruyere

Politeness makes one appear outwardly as they should be within. — Jean De La Bruyere

Some young people do not sufficiently understand the advantages of natural charms, and how much they would gain by trusting to them entirely. They weaken these gifts of heaven, so rare and fragile, by affected manners and an awkward imitation. Their tones and their gait are borrowed; they study their attitudes before the glass until they have lost all trace of natural manner, and, with all their pains, they please but little. — Jean De La Bruyere

During the course of our life we now and then enjoy some pleasures so inviting, and have some encounters of so tender a nature, that though they are forbidden, it is but natural to wish that they were at least allowable. Nothing can be more delightful, except it be to abandon them for virtue's sake. — Jean De La Bruyere

Amongst such as out of cunning hear all and talk little, be sure to talk less; or if you must talk, say little. — Jean De La Bruyere

Party loyalty lowers the greatest men to the petty level of the masses. — Jean De La Bruyere

It is a great misfortune neither to have enough wit to talk well nor enough judgment to be silent. — Jean De La Bruyere

Languages are the keys of science. — Jean De La Bruyere

It is a great misfortune not to possess sufficient wit to speak well, nor sufficient judgment to keep silent. — Jean De La Bruyere

Too great carelessness, equally with excess in dress, multiplies the wrinkles of old age, and makes its decay still more conspicuous. — Jean De La Bruyere

When we are young we lay up for old age; when we are old we save for death. — Jean De La Bruyere

It would be a kind of ferocity to reject indifferently all sorts of praise. One should be glad to have that which comes from good men who praise in sincerity things that are really praiseworthy. — Jean De La Bruyere

Avoid lawsuits beyond all things; they pervert your conscience, impair your health, and dissipate your property. — Jean De La Bruyere

Don't wait to be happy to laugh ... You may die and never have laughed. — Jean De La Bruyere

The pleasure a man of honor enjoys in the consciousness of having performed his duty is a reward he pays himself for all his pains. — Jean De La Bruyere

The great gift of conversation lies less in displaying it ourselves than in drawing it out of others. He who leaves your company pleased with himself and his own cleverness is perfectly well pleased with you. — Jean De La Bruyere

Sudden love takes the longest time to be cured. — Jean De La Bruyere

No man is so perfect, so necessary to his friends, as to give them no cause to miss him less. — Jean De La Bruyere

We hope to grow old and we dread old age; that is to say, we love life and we flee from death. — Jean De La Bruyere

The State not seldom tolerates a comparatively great evil to keep out millions of lesser ills and inconveniences which otherwise would be inevitable and without remedy. — Jean De La Bruyere

For a long time visits among lovers and professions of love are kept up through habit, after their behavior has plainly proved that love no longer exists. — Jean De La Bruyere

Make me chaste and To what excesses will men not go for the sake of a religion in which they believe so little and which they practice so imperfectly! — Jean De La Bruyere

We all covet wealth, but not its perils. — 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. — Jean De La Bruyere

The duty of a judge is to administer justice, but his practice is to delay it — Jean De La Bruyere

Duty is what goes most against the grain, because in doing that we do only what we are strictly obliged to, and are seldom much praised for it. — Jean De La Bruyere

From time to time there appear on the face of the earth men of rare and consummate excellence, who dazzle us by their virtue, and whose outstanding qualities shed a stupendous light. Like those extraordinary stars of whose origins we are ignorant, and of whose fate, once they have vanished, we know even less, such men have neither forebears nor descendants: they are the whole of their race. — Jean De La Bruyere

Even the best intentioned of great men need a few scoundrels around them; there are some things you cannot ask an honest man to do. — Jean De La Bruyere

It is often easier as well as more advantageous to conform to other men's opinions than to bring them over to ours. — Jean De La Bruyere

He who excels in his art so as to carry it to the utmost height of perfection of which it is capable may be said in some measure to go beyond it: his transcendent productions admit of no appellations. — Jean De La Bruyere

It is a sad thing when men have neither the wit to speak well nor the judgment to hold their tongues. — Jean De La Bruyere

It is very rare to find ground which produces nothing; if it is not covered with flowers, with fruit trees and grains, it produces briers and pines. It is the same with man; if he is not virtuous, he becomes vicious. — Jean De La Bruyere

The very impossibility in which I find myself to prove that God is not, discovers to me his existence. — Jean De La Bruyere

Whatever is certain in death is slightly alleviated by what is not so infallible; the time when it shall happen is undefined, but it is more or less connected with the infinite, and what we call eternity. — Jean De La Bruyere

One faithful Friend is enough for a man's self, 'tis much to meet with such an one, yet we can't have too many for the sake of others. — 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. — Jean De La Bruyere

The true spirit of conversation consists more in bringing out the cleverness of others than in showing a great deal of it yourself; he who goes away pleased with himself and his own wit is also greatly pleased with you. Most men would rather please than admire you; they seek less to be instructed, and even to be amused, than to be praised and applauded. — Jean De La Bruyere

The slave has but one master, the ambitious man has as many as there are persons whose aid may contribute to the advancement of his fortunes. — Jean De La Bruyere

A position of eminence makes a great person greater and a small person less. — Jean De La Bruyere

Physiognomy is not a guide that has been given us by which to judge of the character of men: it may only serve us for conjecture.
[Fr., La physionomie n'est pas une regle qui nous soit donnee pour juger des hommes; elle nous peut servir de conjecture.] — Jean De La Bruyere

It is better to expose ourselves to ingratitude than to neglect our duty to the distressed. — Jean De La Bruyere