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Jean de la Bruyere Quotes - Page 6

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A man is rich whose income is larger than his expenses, and he is poor if his expenses are greater than his income.

A man is rich whose income is larger than his expenses, and he is poor if his expenses are greater than his income.

Jean de la Bruyere
Men, Income, Wealth
"Les Caractères". Book by Jean de La Bruyère. 'Of The Gifts of Fortune,' #49, 1688.

The doctors allow one to die, the charlatans kill.

Jean de la Bruyere
Doctors, Charlatans, Dies

A mediocre mind thinks it writes divinely; a good mind thinks it writes reasonably.

Jean de la Bruyere
Writing, Thinking, Mind

All men's misfortunes spring from their hatred of being alone.

Jean de la Bruyere
Spring, Loneliness, Being Alone

Logic is the technique by which we add conviction to truth.

Jean de la Bruyere
Math, Technique, Add

I take sanctuary in an honest mediocrity.

Jean de la Bruyere
Mediocrity, Sanctuary, Honest

Some men promise to keep your secret and yet reveal it without knowing they are doing so; they do not wag their lips, and yet they are understood; it is read on their brow and in their eyes; it is seen through their breast; they are transparent.

Jean de la Bruyere
Eye, Men, Knowing

Incivility is not a Vice of the Soul, but the effect of several Vices; of Vanity, Ignorance of Duty, Laziness, Stupidity, Distraction, Contempt of others, and Jealousy.

Jean de la Bruyere
Ignorance, Character, Vanity
"The Characters or Manners of the Present Age". Book by Jean de la Bruyere, Volume II, Chapter XI, 1688.

It is worse to apprehend than to suffer.

Jean de la Bruyere
Suffering, Anticipation

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
Duty, Grain, Obliged

A man of the world must seem to be what he wishes to be thought.

Jean de la Bruyere
Men, Wish, World

Two persons cannot long be friends if they cannot forgive each other's little failings.

Jean de la Bruyere
Friendship, Forgiveness, Two Friends

Between good sense and good taste there lies the difference between a cause and its effect.

Jean de la Bruyere
Lying, Differences, Taste
"Of Opinions". "Characters", Book by Jean De La Bruyère, www.ourcivilisation.com. 1688.

It's motive alone which gives character to the actions of men.

Jean de la Bruyere
Character, Men, Giving

Discretion is the perfection of reason, and a guide to us in all the duties of life; cunning is a kind of instinct, that only looks out after our immediate interests and welfare. Discretion is only found in men of strong sense and good understanding; cunning is often to be met with in brutes themselves, and in persons who are but the fewest removes from them.

Jean de la Bruyere
Strong, Men, Perfection

Manners carry the world for the moment, character for all time.

Jean de la Bruyere
Character, World, Moments

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.

Jean de la Bruyere
World, Fame, Pursuit

A woman is easily governed, if a man takes her in hand.

Jean de la Bruyere
Women, Men, Hands

Children enjoy the present because they have neither a past nor a future.

Jean de la Bruyere
Children, Past, Enjoy

The beginning and the end of love are both marked by embarrassment when the two find themselves alone. [Fr., Le commencement et le declin de l'amour se font sentir par l'embarras ou l'on est de se trouver seuls.]

Jean de la Bruyere
Love, Two, Fonts

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
Men, Innocent Person, Criminals

There are certain things in which mediocrity is intolerable: poetry, music, painting, public eloquence. What torture it is to hear a frigid speech being pompously declaimed, or second-rate verse spoken with all a bad poet's bombast!

Jean de la Bruyere
Mediocrity, Speech, Painting
"Of Books". "Characters", Book by Jean De La Bruyère, www.ourcivilisation.com. 1688.

Rarely do they appear great before their valets.

Jean de la Bruyere
Hero, Valet
"Caractères". Book by Jean de La Bruyère, 1688.

There are some souls so base and filthy that they love gain and interest as noble souls love fame and virtue, knowing one pleasure only, that of making money or of not losing it; anxious and avid for their ten per cent; entirely preoccupied with what is owed them; forever concerned about the depreciation or discredit of money; buried, and as it were engulfed, amid contracts, title-deeds and parchments. Such people are neither parents, friends, citizens or Christians, nor, perhaps, even men; they merely have money.

Jean de la Bruyere
Greed, Soul, Mind
"Of Worldly Goods". "Characters", Book by Jean De La Bruyère, www.ourcivilisation.com. 1688.

False modesty is the masterpiece of vanity: showing the vain man in such an illusory light that he appears in the reputation of the virtue quite opposite to the vice which constitutes his real character; it is a deceit.

Jean de la Bruyere
Real, Character, Men

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