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Jean de la Bruyere Quotes - Page 7

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An inconstant woman is one who is no longer in love; a false woman is one who is already in love with another person; a fickle woman is she who neither knows whom she loves nor whether she loves or not; and the

An inconstant woman is one who is no longer in love; a false woman is one who is already in love with another person; a fickle woman is she who neither knows whom she loves nor whether she loves or not; and the indifferent woman, one who does not love at all.

Jean de la Bruyere
Women, Doe, Fickle

Logic is the art of making truth prevail.

Jean de la Bruyere
Art, Philosophy, Logic

As a man falls out of favour and his wealth declines, we discover for the first time the ridiculous aspects of his character, which were always there but which wealth and favour had concealed.

Jean de la Bruyere
Men, Favors, Riches
"Of Worldly Goods". "Characters", Book by Jean De La Bruyère, www.ourcivilisation.com. 1688.

A vain man finds it wise to speak good or ill of himself; a modest man does not talk of himself.

Jean de la Bruyere
Wise, Men, Doe

Don't wait to be happy to laugh... You may die and never have laughed.

Jean de la Bruyere
Happiness, Laughing, Waiting

A lovely countenance is the fairest of all sights, and the sweetest harmony is the sound of the voice of her whom we love.

Jean de la Bruyere
Sight, Voice, Lovely

You may drive a dog off the King's armchair, and it will climb into the preacher's pulpit; he views the world unmoved, unembarrassed, unabashed.

Jean de la Bruyere
Dog, Kings, Views
"Of Personal Merit". "Characters", Book by Jean De La Bruyère, www.ourcivilisation.com. 1688.

We need not envy certain people their great wealth; they acquired it at a heavy cost, which would not suit us; they staked their rest, their health, their honour and their conscience to acquire it, the price is too high, and there is nothing to be gained by such a bargain.

Jean de la Bruyere
Men, Class, Envy
"Of Worldly Goods". "Characters", Book by Jean De La Bruyère, www.ourcivilisation.com. 1688.

A good saying often runs the risk of being thrown away when quoted as the speaker's own. [Fr., C'est souvent hasarder un bon mot et vouloir le perdre que de le donner pour sien.]

Jean de la Bruyere
Running, Risk, Thrown
"Characters", II, 1688.

False glory is the rock of vanity; it seduces men to affect esteem by things which they indeed possess, but which are frivolous, and which for a man to value himself on would be a scandalous error.

Jean de la Bruyere
Men, Errors, Vanity

A faithless woman, if known to be such by the person concerned, is but faithless; if she is believed faithful, she is treacherous.

Jean de la Bruyere
Faithful, Adultery, Concerned
"The "Characters" of Jean de la Bruyère". Book by Jean de La Bruyère. Translated by Henri Van Laun, 1885.

A man is thirty years old before he has any settled thoughts of his fortune; it is not completed before fifty. He falls to building in his old age, and dies by the time his house is in a condition to be painted and glazed.

Jean de la Bruyere
Fall, Men, Years

Life at court does not satisfy a man, but it keeps him from being satisfied with anything else.

Jean de la Bruyere
Men, Doe, Ears

A tall, well-built man with a deep chest and broad shoulders can carry a heavy burden with ease and unconcern, and still keep one hand free; a dwarf would be crushed by half that weight. Thus lofty posts make great men greater still, and small men much smaller.

Jean de la Bruyere
Men, Office, Small Man
"Of Man". "Characters", Book by Jean De La Bruyère, www.ourcivilisation.com. 1688.

It is too much for a husband to have a wife who is a coquette and sanctimonious as well; she should select only one of those qualities.

Jean de la Bruyere
Husband, Wife, Quality

I am not surprised that there are gambling houses, like so many snares laid for human avarice; like abysses where many a man's money is engulfed and swallowed up without any hope of return; like frightful rocks against which the gamblers are thrown and perish.

Jean de la Bruyere
Men, Gambling, Rocks

For a woman to be at once a coquette and a bigot is more than the humblest of husbands can bear; she should mercifully choose between the two.

Jean de la Bruyere
Husband, Two, Coquette

The most delicate, the most sensible of all pleasures, consists in promoting the pleasure of others.

Jean de la Bruyere
Pleasure, Sensible, Delicate

Making a book is a craft, like making a clock; it needs more than native wit to be an author.

Jean de la Bruyere
Book, Needs, Crafts
"Of Books". "Characters", Book by Jean De La Bruyère, www.ourcivilisation.com. 1688.

False greatness is unsociable and remote: conscious of its own frailty, it hides, or at least averts its face, and reveals itself only enough to create an illusion and not be recognized as the meanness that it really is. True greatness is free, kind, familiar and popular; it lets itself be touched and handled, it loses nothing by being seen at close quarters; the better one knows it, the more one admires it.

Jean de la Bruyere
Greatness, Political, Politics
"Of Personal Merit". "Characters", Book by Jean De La Bruyère, www.ourcivilisation.com. 1688.

If a secret is revealed, the person who has confided it to another is to be blamed.

Jean de la Bruyere
Secret, Persons, Ifs

A man's worth is estimated in this world according to his conduct.

Jean de la Bruyere
Men, World, Manners

Children are contemptuous, haughty, irritable, envious, sneaky, selfish, lazy, flighty, timid, liars and hypocrites, quick to laugh and cry, extreme in expressing joy and sorrow, especially about trifles, they'll do anything to avoid pain but they enjoy inflicting it: little men already.

Jean de la Bruyere
Pain, Children, Liars

Young people are dazzled by the brilliancy of antithesis, and employ it. Matter-of-fact men, and those who like precision, naturally fall into comparisons and metaphor. Sprightly natures, full of fire, and whom a boundless imagination carries beyond all rules, and even what is reasonable, cannot rest satisfied even with hyperbole. As for the sublime, it is only great geniuses and those of the very highest order that are able to rise to its height.

Jean de la Bruyere
Fall, Men, Order

It is boorish to live ungraciously: the giving is the hardest part; what does it cost to add a smile?

Jean de la Bruyere
Smile, Giving, Add

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