Luc de Clapiers Quotes - Page 2

Great men, like nature, use simple language.

He who knows how to suffer everything can dare everything.

Indolence is the sleep of the mind.

It is of no use to possess a lively wit if it is not of the right proportion: the perfection of a clock is not to go fast, but to be accurate.

Men are not to be judged by what they do not know, but by what they know, and by the manner in which they know it.

Reason deceives us more often than does nature.

Faith is the consolation of the wretched and the terror of the happy.

Fools do not understand men of intelligence.

Superficial knowledge ... is hurtful to those who possess true genius; for it necessarily draws them away from their main object, wastes their industry over details and subjects foreign to their needs and natural talent, and lastly does not serve, as they flatter themselves, to prove the breadth of their mind. In all ages there have been men of very moderate intelligence who knew much, and so on the contrary, men of the highest intelligence who knew very little. Ignorance is not lack of intelligence, nor knowledge a proof of genius.

The maxims of men reveal their characters.

Necessity relieves us from the embarrassment of choice.

Commerce is the school of cheating.

Reason and emotion counsel and supplement each other. Whoever heeds only the one, and puts aside the other, recklessly deprives himself of a portion of the aid granted us for the regulation of our conduct.

It is not in everyone's power to secure wealth, office, or honors; but everyone may be good, generous, and wise.

The mind is the soul's eye, not its source of power. That lies in the heart, in other words, in the passions.

All grand thoughts come from the heart.

A liar is a man who does now know how to deceive, a flatterer one who only deceives fools: he who knows how to make skilful use of the truth, and understands its eloquence, can alone pride himself in cleverness.

As it is natural to believe many things without proof, so, despite all proof, is it natural to disbelieve others.

We can love with all our hearts those in whom we recognize great faults. It would be impertinent to believe that perfection alone has the right to please us; sometimes our weaknesses attach us to each other as much as our virtues.

The maxim that men are not to be praised before their death was invented by envy and too lightly adopted by philosophers. I, on the contrary, maintain that they ought to be praised in their lifetime if they merit it; but jealousy and calumny, roused against their virtue or their talent, labour to degrade them if any one ventures to bear testimony to them. It is unjust criticism that they should fear to hazard, not sincere praise.

To achieve great things we must live as though we were never going to die.

Is it against justice or reason to love ourselves? And why is self-love always a vice?

Few men have depth enough to hear or tell the truth.

If a man is endowed with a noble and courageous soul, if he is painstaking, proud, ambitious, without meanness, of a profound a deep-seated intelligence, I dare assert that he lacks nothing to be neglected by the great and men in high office, who fear, more than other men, those whom they cannot dominate.

Emotions have taught mankind to reason.