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Jean de la Bruyere Quotes - Page 3

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They who, without any previous knowledge of us, think amiss of us, do us no harm; they attack not us, but the phantom of their own imagination.

They who, without any previous knowledge of us, think amiss of us, do us no harm; they attack not us, but the phantom of their own imagination.

Jean de la Bruyere
Thinking, Imagination, Prejudice

Hatred is so lasting and stubborn, that reconciliation on a sickbed certainly forebodes death.

Jean de la Bruyere
Hate, Hatred, Stubborn

If it be usual to be strongly impressed by things that are scarce, why are we so little impressed by virtue?

Jean de la Bruyere
Usual, Littles, Virtue
"The "Characters" of Jean de la Bruyère". "Of Personal Merit," №20. Book by Jean de La Bruyère. Translated by Henri Van Laun, 1885.

Love seizes us suddenly, without giving warning, and our disposition or our weakness favors the surprise; one look, one glance, from the fair fixes and determines us.

Jean de la Bruyere
Love, Giving, Warning

Misers are neither relations, nor friends, nor citizens, nor Christians, nor perhaps even human beings.

Jean de la Bruyere
Christian, Citizens, Wealth

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
Love Life, Age, Dread
"Les Caractères", XI, as quoted in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations, p. 12-17, 1922.

Men fall from great fortune because of the same shortcomings that led to their rise.

Jean de la Bruyere
Failure, Fall, Men

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
Lying, Drawing, Conversation

Let us not complain against men because otheir rudeness, their ingratitude, their injustice, their arrogance, their love oself, their forgetfulness oothers. They are so made. Such is their nature.

Jean de la Bruyere
Men, Arrogance, Complaining

There is nothing men are so anxious to keep, and yet are so careless about, as life.

Jean de la Bruyere
Life, Men, Anxious

Those who make the worst use of their time are the first to complain of its shortness.

Jean de la Bruyere
Inspirational, Time, Life Is Too Short

Great things astonish us, and small dishearten us. Custom makes both familiar.

Jean de la Bruyere
Familiar, Great Things, Customs
"The Characters or Manners of the Present Age". Book by Jean de La Bruyère, Nicholas Rowe,Volume II, Chapter I. On Judgments, 1688.

Friendship can exist between persons of different sexes, without any coarse or sensual feelings; yet a woman always looks upon a man as a man, and so a man will look upon a woman as a woman.

Jean de la Bruyere
Sex, Men, Feelings

A party spirit betrays the greatest men to act as meanly as the vulgar herd.

Jean de la Bruyere
Party, Men, Spirit

A man may doubt of God's existence when he is in good health, just as he may doubt whether his relation with a harlot is sinful. When he falls ill, when dropsy develops, he leaves his concubine, and he believes in God.

Jean de la Bruyere
Children, Believe, Fall
"Of Freethinkers". "Characters", Book by Jean De La Bruyère, www.ourcivilisation.com. 1688.

It is in vain to ridicule a rich fool, for the laughers will be on his side.

Jean de la Bruyere
Fool, Sides, Wealth

It is better to expose ourselves to ingratitude than to neglect our duty to the distressed.

Jean de la Bruyere
Neglect, Duty, Ingratitude

To express truth is to write naturally, forcibly, and delicately.

Jean de la Bruyere
Writing, Truth Is

The Great slight the men of wit, who have nothing but wit; the men of wit despise the Great, who have nothing but greatness; the good man pities them both, if with greatness or wit they have not virtue.

Jean de la Bruyere
Greatness, Men, Good Man

A blockhead cannot come in, nor go away, nor sit, nor rise, nor stand, like a man of sense.

Jean de la Bruyere
Men, Going Away, Blockheads

When we are dead we are praised by those who survive us, though we frequently have no other merit than that of being no longer alive.

Jean de la Bruyere
Alive, Merit, Reputation

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
Art, Red, Faces

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
Teaching, Ignorance, Men

The finest pleasure is kindness to others.

Jean de la Bruyere
Kindness, Finest, Pleasure

If this life is unhappy, it is a burden to us, which it is difficult to bear; if it is in every respect happy, it is dreadful to be deprived of it; so that in either case the result is the same, for we must exist in anxiety and apprehension.

Jean de la Bruyere
Life, Anxiety, Unhappy

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