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Jean de la Bruyere Quotes - Page 12

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The noblest deeds are well enough set forth in simple language; emphasis spoils them.

The noblest deeds are well enough set forth in simple language; emphasis spoils them.

Jean de la Bruyere
Simple, Deeds, Action

We perceive when love begins and when it declines by our embarrassment when alone together.

Jean de la Bruyere
Love, Together, Sad Valentines Day

Sudden love is latest cured.

Jean de la Bruyere
Love, Crush, Love Is

Everything has been said, and we have come too late, now that men have been living and thinking for seven thousand years and more.

Jean de la Bruyere
Men, Thinking, Years
"Of Books". "Characters", Book by Jean De La Bruyère, www.ourcivilisation.com. 1688.

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
Passion, Men, Overcoming

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
Beauty, Hands, Years

There exist some evils so terrible and some misfortunes so horrible that we dare not think of them, whilst their very aspect makes us shudder; but if they happen to fall on us, we find ourselves stronger than we imagined, we grapple with our ill luck, and behave better than we expected we should.

Jean de la Bruyere
Fear, Fall, Thinking

When life is unhappy it is hard to endure, when it is happy it is terrible to think of it ending. Both amount to the same thing in the end.

Jean de la Bruyere
Thinking, Unhappy, Life Is

We trust our secrets to our friends, but they escape from us in love.

Jean de la Bruyere
Secret, Secrecy
"Characters", IV, 1688.

Extremes are vicious, and proceed from men; compensation is just, and proceeds from God.

Jean de la Bruyere
Men, Vicious, Compensation

Wit is the god of moments, but Genius is the god of ages.

Jean de la Bruyere
Age, Genius, Moments

When a man puts on a Character he is a stranger to, there's as much difference between what he appears, and what he is really in himself, as there is between a VIzor and a Face.

Jean de la Bruyere
Character, Men, Differences
"The Characters or Manners of the Present Age". Book by Jean de la Bruyere, Chapter XI, 1688.

We must strive to make ourselves really worthy of some employment. We need pay no attention to anything else; the rest is the business of others.

Jean de la Bruyere
Needs, Attention, Employment

An egotist will always speak of himself, either in praise or in censure, but a modest man ever shuns making himself the subject of his conversation.

Jean de la Bruyere
Men, Speak, Praise

Intelligence is to genius as the whole is in proportion to its part. [Fr., Entre esprit et talent il y a la proportion du tout a sa partie.]

Jean de la Bruyere
Genius, Talent, Proportion

Eloquence may be found in conversations and in all kinds of writings; it is rarely found when looked for, and sometimes discovered where it is least expected.

Jean de la Bruyere
Writing, May, Kind
"The Characters", Chapter I' 55, 1688.

The nearer we come to great men the more clearly we see that they are only men. They rarely seem great to their valets.

Jean de la Bruyere
Greatness, Men, Valet

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
Real, Men, Merit

We meet With few utterly dull and stupid souls: the sublime and transcendent are still fewer; the generality of mankind stand between these two extremes: the interval is filled with multitudes of ordinary geniuses, but all very useful, and the ornaments and supports of the commonwealth.

Jean de la Bruyere
Stupid, Two, Support

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
Spring, Hypocrisy, Doubt

It seems to me that the spirit of politeness is a certain attention in causing that, by our words and by our manners, others may be content with us and with themselves.

Jean de la Bruyere
Our Words, Attention, May

Logic is the art of convincing us some truth.

Jean de la Bruyere
Art, Logic, Convincing

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
Gratitude, Men, Giving

There is what is called the highway to posts and honor, and there is a cross and by way, which is much the shortest.

Jean de la Bruyere
Honor, Way, Popularity

Jesting, often, only proves a want of intellect. [Fr., La moquerie est souvent une indigence d'esprit.]

Jean de la Bruyere
Want, Intellect, Prove

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