Quotes from La Bruy?re

All confidence is dangerous unless it is complete; there are few circumstances in which it is not better either to hide all or to tell all.

Eminent positions make eminent men greater and little men less.

Gross ignorance produces a dogmatic spirit. He who knows nothing thinks he can teach others what he has himself just been learning. He who knows much scarcely believes that what he is saying is unknown to others, and consequently speaks with more hesitation.

Liberality consists less in giving much than in giving at the right moment.

The greater part of mankind employ their first years to make their last miserable.

There is nothing keeps longer than a middling fortune, and nothing melts away sooner than a great one. Poverty treads upon the heels of great and unexpected riches.

We are more sociable and get on better with people by the heart than the intellect.