Quotes from la bruyere jean de ii

It is fortunate to be of high birth, but it is no less so to be of such character that people do not care to know whether you are or are not.

A man who knows how to make good bargains or finds his money increase in his coffers, thinks presently that he has a good deal of brains and is almost fit to be a statesman.

The sweetest music is the sound of the voice of the woman we love.

Among some people arrogance supplies the place of grandeur, inhumanity of decision, and roguery of intelligence.

We should like those whom we love to receive all their happiness, or, if this were impossible, all their unhappiness from our hands.

When we lavish our money we rob our heir; when we merely save it we rob ourselves.

We perceive when love begins and when it declines by our perplexity when alone.

Marriage, it seems, confines every man to his proper rank.

He must be a dull Fellow indeed, whom neither Love, Malice, nor Necessity, can inspire with Wit.

Banter is often a proof of want of intelligence.

There are some sordid minds, formed of slime and filth, to whom interest and gain are what glory and virtue are to superior souls; they feel no other pleasure but to acquire money.

It is more or less rude to scorn indiscriminately all kinds of praise; we ought to be proud of that which comes from honest men, who praise sincerely those things in us which are really commendable.

He who knows how to wait for what he desires does not feel very desperate if he fails in obtaining it; and he, on the contrary, who is very impatient in procuring a certain thing, takes so much pains about it, that, even when he is successful, he does not think himself sufficiently rewarded.

There is a pleasure in meeting the glance of a person whom we have lately laid under some obligations.

To how many girls has a great beauty been of no other use but to make them expect a large fortune!

From time to time there appear on the face of the earth men of rare and consummate excellence, who dazzle us by their virtue, and whose outstanding qualities shed a stupendous light. Like those extraordinary stars of whose origins we are ignorant, and of whose fate, once they have vanished, we know even less, such men have neither forebears nor descendants: they are the whole of their race.

Whatever is certain in death is slightly alleviated by what is not so infallible; the time when it shall happen is undefined, but it is more or less connected with the infinite, and what we call eternity.

A man must be completely wanting in intelligence if he does not show it when actuated by love, malice, or necessity.

There are only two ways by which to rise in this world, either by one's own industry or by the stupidity of others.

The most accomplished literary work would be reduced to nothing by carping criticism, if the author would listen to all critics and allow every one to erase the passage which pleases him the least.