Luc de Clapiers Quotes - Page 6

There are those who are so scrupulously afraid of doing wrong that they seldom venture to do anything.

Men dissimulate their dearest, most constant, and most virtuous inclination from weakness and a fear of being condemned.

Hope is the only good thing that disillusion respects.

Hatred and dishonesty generally arises from fear of being deceived.

More are taken in by hope than by cunning.

A man can hardly be said to have made a fortune if he does not know how to enjoy it.

Clarity is the counterbalance of profound thoughts.

I do not approve the maxim which desires a man to know a little of everything. Superficial knowledge, knowledge without principles, is almost always useless and sometimes harmful knowledge.

Excessive distrust is not less hurtfJul than its opposite. Most men become useless to him who is unwilling to risk being deceived.

Vice foments war; it is virtue which actually fights. If there were no virtue, we would live in peace forever.

We are forced to respect the gifts of nature, which study and fortune cannot give.

Nothing endures except truth.

All erroneous ideas would perish of their own accord if given clear expression.

To possess taste, one must have some soul.

It is a great sign of mediocrity to praise always moderately.

No one is more liable to make mistakes than he who acts only on reflexion.

Clearness ornaments profound thoughts.

Our failings sometimes bind us to one another as closely as could virtue itself.

Sometimes a lengthened period of prosperity melts away in a moment; just as the heat of summer flies before a day of tempest.

It is in our own mind and not in exterior objects that we perceive most things; fools know scarcely anything because they are empty, and their heart is narrow; but great souls find in themselves a number of exterior things; they have no need to read or travel or to listen or to work to discover the highest truths; they have only to delve into themselves and search, if we may say so, their own thoughts.

The common excuse for those bringing misfortune on others is that they desire their good.

The law cannot equalize mankind in spite of nature.

Necessity moderates more troubles than reason.

A new principle is an inexhaustible source of new views.

The shortness of life cannot dissuade us from its pleasures, nor console us for its pains.