Quotes from Jean de la Bruyere

The nearer we come to great men the more clearly we see that they are only men. They rarely seem great to their valets.

The most exquisite pleasure is giving pleasure to others.

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

Life is a tragedy for those who feel, and a comedy for those who think.

A modest man never talks of himself.

He who has lived a day has lived an age.

Those who make the worst use of their time most complain of its brevity.

A man must have very eminent qualities to hold his own without being polite.

It is a great misfortune neither to have enough wit to talk well nor enough judgement to be silent.

It is a great misfortune neither to have enough wit to talk well nor enough judgment to be silent.

There is no business in the world so troublesome as the pursuit of fame: life is over before you have hardly begun your work.

There are but two ways of rising in the world: either by one's own industry or profiting by the foolishness of others.

Children have neither a past nor a future. Thus they enjoy the present, which seldom happens to us.

A man often runs the risk of throwing away a witticism if he admits that it is his own.

If it be true that a man is rich who wants nothing, a wise man is a very rich man.

There is a false modesty, which is vanity; a false glory, which is levity; a false grandeur, which is meanness; a false virtue, which is hypocrisy, and a false wisdom, which is prudery.

The Opera is obviously the first draft of a fine spectacle; it suggests the idea of one.

A vain man finds it wise to speak good or ill of himself; a modest man does not talk of himself.

There are some men who turn a deaf ear to reason and good advice, and willfully go wrong for fear of being controlled.

A fool is one whom simpletons believe to be a man on merit. [Fr., Un fat celui que les sots croient un homme de merite.]

A man of moderate Understanding, thinks he writes divinely: A man of good Understanding, thinks he writes reasonably.

When a secret is revealed, it is the fault of the man who confided it.

Men regret their life has been ill-spent, but this does not always induce them to make a better use of the time they have yet to live.

Let us not complain against men because otheir rudeness, their ingratitude, their injustice, their arrogance, their love oself, their forgetfulness oothers. They are so made. Such is their nature.