Jean de La Bruyere Quotes

The same common sense which makes an author write good things, makes him dread they are not good enough to deserve reading. Impertinent wits are a kind of insect which are in everybody's way and plentiful in all countries. It is in vain to ridicule a rich fool, for the laughers will be on his side. If a handsome woman allows that another woman is beautiful, we may safely conclude she excels her. If it be usual to be strongly impressed by things that are scarce, why are we so little impressed by virtue? The flatterer does not think highly enough of himself or of others. The State not seldom tolerates a comparatively great evil to keep out millions of lesser ills and inconveniences which otherwise would be inevitable and without remedy. A man may have intelligence enough to excel in a particular thing and lecture on it, and yet not have sense enough to know he ought to be silent on some other subject of which he has but a slight knowledge; if such an illustrious man ventures beyond the bounds of his capacity, he loses his way and talks like a fool. A man must have very eminent qualities to hold his own without being polite. When we are dead we are praised by those who survive us, though we frequently have no other merit than that of being no longer alive. As riches and honor forsake a man, we discover him to be a fool, but nobody could find it out in his prosperity. Piety with some people, but especially with women, is either a passion, or an infirmity of age, or a fashion which must be followed. Party loyalty lowers the greatest men to the petty level of the masses. There are some extraordinary fathers, who seem, during the whole course of their lives, to be giving their children reasons for being consoled at their death. It is often easier as well as more advantageous to conform to other men's opinions than to bring them over to ours. There are few wives so perfect as not to give their husbands at least once a day good reason to repent of ever having married, or at least of envying those who are unmarried. Love seizes us suddenly, without giving warning, and our disposition or our weakness favors the surprise; one look, one glance, from the fair fixes and determines us. Make me chaste and To what excesses will men not go for the sake of a religion in which they believe so little and which they practice so imperfectly! Men fall from great fortune because of the same shortcomings that led to their rise. There are certain people who so ardently and passionately desire a thing, that from dread of losing it they leave nothing undone to make them lose it. A man has made great progress in cunning when he does not seem too clever to others. There is as much trickery required to grow rich by a stupid book as there is folly in buying it. A heap of epithets is poor praise: the praise lies in the facts, and in the way of telling them. Politeness makes one appear outwardly as they should be within. 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. People reveal their character even in the simplest things they do. Fools do not enter a room, nor leave it, nor sit down, nor rise, nor are they silent, nor do they stand up, like people of sense and understanding. The finest pleasure is kindness to others. A wise man is not governed by others, nor does he try to govern them; he prefers that reason alone prevail. A pious man is one who would be an atheist if the king were. Envy and hatred go together. Mutually strengthened by the fact pursue the same object.