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Jean de la Bruyere Quotes - Page 5

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Eloquence is to the sublime what the whole is to the part.

Eloquence is to the sublime what the whole is to the part.

Jean de la Bruyere
Sublime, Eloquence, Whole

Born merely for the purpose of digestion.

Jean de la Bruyere
Purpose, Digestion, Born

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
Stars, Fate, Men
"Of Personal Merit". "Characters", Book by Jean De La Bruyère, www.ourcivilisation.com. 1688.

Great things only require to be simply told, for they are spoiled by emphasis; but little things should be clothed in lofty language, as they are only kept up by expression, tone of voice, and style of delivery.

Jean de la Bruyere
Expression, Voice, Style

One must laugh before one is happy, or one may die without ever laughing at all.

Jean de la Bruyere
Laughing, May, Dies

As long as men are liable to die and are desirous to live, a physician will be made fun of, but he will be well paid.

Jean de la Bruyere
Fun, Health, Men

A simple garb is the proper costume of the vulgar; it is cut for them, and exactly suits their measure, but it is an ornament for those who have filled up their lives with great deeds. I liken them to beauty in dishabille, but more bewitching on that account.

Jean de la Bruyere
Cutting, Simple, Filled Up

Let us not envy some men their accumulated riches; their burden would be too heavy for us; we could not sacrifice, as they do, health, quiet, honor and conscience, to obtain them: It is to pay so dear from them that the bargain is a loss.

Jean de la Bruyere
Loss, Sacrifice, Men

A man who has schemed for some time can no longer do without it; all other ways of living are to him dull and insipid.

Jean de la Bruyere
Men, Dull, Way

It is easier to enrich ourselves with a thousand virtues, than to correct ourselves of a single fault.

Jean de la Bruyere
Faults, Virtue, Easier

When we are young we lay up for old age; when we are old we save for death.

Jean de la Bruyere
Age, Young, Prudence

The fool only is troublesome. A plan of sense perceives when he is agreeable or tiresome; he disappears the very minute before he would have been thought to have stayed too long.

Jean de la Bruyere
Long, Fool, Disappear

At the beginning and at the end of love, the two lovers are embarrassed to find themselves alone.

Jean de la Bruyere
Love, Life, Dream

We are valued in this world at the rate we desire to be valued.

Jean de la Bruyere
Self Esteem, Self Worth, Self Respect

The lives of heroes have enriched history, and history has adorned the actions of heroes ; and thus I cannot say whether the historians are more indebted to those who provided them with such noble materials, or those great men to their historians.

Jean de la Bruyere
Hero, Men, Noble

A long disease seems to be a halting place between life and death, that death itself may be a comfort to those who die and to those who are left behind.

Jean de la Bruyere
Long, Life And Death, Comfort

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
Vices, Doe, Virtue
"Les Characters". Book by Jean de La Bruyère. 'Of the Affections,' #72, 1688.

A well-born man is fortunate, but so is the man about whom people no longer ask, 'is he well-born?'

Jean de la Bruyere
Character, People, Care
"Of Personal Merit". "Characters", Book by Jean De La Bruyère, www.ourcivilisation.com. 1688.

A fool is one whom simpletons believe to be a man on merit. [Fr., Un fat celui que les sots croient un homme de merite.]

Jean de la Bruyere
Believe, Men, Fool

You think him to be your dupe; if he feigns to be so who is the greater dupe, he or you?

Jean de la Bruyere
Thinking, Dupes, Deceit
"Characters", V, 1688.

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
Spring, Ignorance, Vanity

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
Hard Work, Men, Hands
"Of Books". "Characters", Book by Jean De La Bruyère, www.ourcivilisation.com. 1688.

There is speaking well, speaking easily, speaking justly and speaking seasonably: It is offending against the last, to speak of entertainments before the indigent; of sound limbs and health before the infirm; of houses and lands before one who has not so much as a dwelling; in a word, to speak of your prosperity before the miserable; this conversation is cruel, and the comparison which naturally arises in them betwixt their condition and yours is excruciating.

Jean de la Bruyere
Speaking Well, Offending, Land

Men blush less for their crimes than for their weaknesses and vanity.

Jean de la Bruyere
Men, Vanity, Weakness
"Les Caractères, II". Book by Jean de La Bruyère, 1688.

Days, months, years fly away, and irrecoverably sink in the abyss of time.

Jean de la Bruyere
Time, Years, Months

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