Top 432 Quotes & Sayings by Jean de la Bruyere
Explore popular quotes and sayings by a French philosopher Jean de la Bruyere.
Last updated on November 3, 2024.
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.
Everything has been said, and we are more than seven thousand years of human thought too late.
Poverty may be the mother of crime, but lack of good sense is the father.
Liberality consists less in giving a great deal than in gifts well-timed.
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.
All of our unhappiness comes from our inability to be alone.
We must laugh before we are happy, for fear of dying without having laughed at all.
At the beginning and at the end of love, the two lovers are embarrassed to find themselves alone.
Man has but three events in his life: to be born, to live, and to die. He is not conscious of his birth, he suffers at his death and he forgets to live.
Marriage, it seems, confines every man to his proper rank.
The exact contrary of what is generally believed is often the truth.
Those who make the worst use of their time are the first to complain of its shortness.
Next to sound judgment, diamonds and pearls are the rarest things in the world.
No man is so perfect, so necessary to his friends, as to give them no cause to miss him less.
Grief at the absence of a loved one is happiness compared to life with a person one hates.
Two quite opposite qualities equally bias our minds - habits and novelty.
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.
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.
It is fortunate to be of high birth, but it is no less so to be of such character that people do not care to know whether you are or are not.
Time makes friendship stronger, but love weaker.
The passion of hatred is so long lived and so obstinate a malady that the surest sign of death in a sick person is their desire for reconciliation.
A man of the world must seem to be what he wishes to be thought.
The first day one is a guest, the second a burden, and the third a pest.
Two persons cannot long be friends if they cannot forgive each other's little failings.
There are certain things in which mediocrity is not to be endured, such as poetry, music, painting, public speaking.
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.
Avoid lawsuits beyond all things; they pervert your conscience, impair your health, and dissipate your property.
It is boorish to live ungraciously: the giving is the hardest part; what does it cost to add a smile?
The court is like a palace of marble; it's composed of people very hard and very polished.
One seeks to make the loved one entirely happy, or, if that cannot be, entirely wretched.
Children have neither a past nor a future. Thus they enjoy the present, which seldom happens to us.
Men blush less for their crimes than for their weaknesses and vanity.
One mark of a second-rate mind is to be always telling stories.
If some persons died, and others did not die, death would be a terrible affliction.
Politeness makes one appear outwardly as they should be within.
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.
A pious man is one who would be an atheist if the king were.
A slave has but one master; an ambitious man has as many masters as there are people who may be useful in bettering his position.
Love and friendship exclude each other.
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.
It's motive alone which gives character to the actions of men.
This great misfortune - to be incapable of solitude.
There is not in the world so toilsome a trade as the pursuit of fame; life concludes before you have so much as sketched your work.
The sweetest of all sounds is that of the voice of the woman we love.
Logic is the technique by which we add conviction to truth.
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.
All men's misfortunes spring from their hatred of being alone.
A position of eminence makes a great person greater and a small person less.
A vain man finds it wise to speak good or ill of himself; a modest man does not talk of himself.
It is a sad thing when men have neither the wit to speak well nor the judgment to hold their tongues.
The very impossibility in which I find myself to prove that God is not, discovers to me his existence.
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.
The wise person often shuns society for fear of being bored.
Between good sense and good taste there lies the difference between a cause and its effect.
He who tip-toes cannot stand; he who strides cannot walk.
Out of difficulties grow miracles.
The regeneration of society is the regeneration of society by individual education.
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.
We can recognize the dawn and the decline of love by the uneasiness we feel when alone together.
As favor and riches forsake a man, we discover in him the foolishness they concealed, and which no one perceived before.
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