Quotes from Jean de la Bruyere

We seek our happiness outside ourselves, and in the opinion of men we know to be flatterers, insincere, unjust, full of envy, caprice and prejudice.

A man reveals his character even in the simplest things he does.

A man can keep another's secret better than his own. A woman her own better than others.

Women become attached to men by the intimacies they grant them; men are cured of their love by the same intimacies.

A man is rich whose income is larger than his expenses, and he is poor if his expenses are greater than his income.

It's motive alone which gives character to the actions of men.

False glory is the rock of vanity; it seduces men to affect esteem by things which they indeed possess, but which are frivolous, and which for a man to value himself on would be a scandalous error.

Every man is valued in this world as he shows by his conduct that he wishes to be valued.

I am told so many ill things of a man, and I see so few in him, that I begin to suspect he has a real but troublesome merit, as being likely to eclipse that of others.

The pleasure a man of honor enjoys in the consciousness of having performed his duty is a reward he pays himself for all his pains.

A woman is easily governed, if a man takes her in hand.

Favor exalts a man above his equals, but his dismissal from that favor places him below them.

Politeness does not always inspire goodness, equity, complaisance, and gratitude; it gives at least the appearance of these qualities, and makes man appear outwardly, as he should be within.

A vain man finds his account in speaking good or evil of himself.

A wise man is not governed by others, nor does he try to govern them; he prefers that reason alone prevail.

All men's misfortunes spring from their hatred of being alone.

Even the best intentioned of great men need a few scoundrels around them; there are some things you cannot ask an honest ma to do.

The nearer we approach great men, the clearer we see that they are men.

All of our unhappiness comes from our inability to be alone.

The majority of women have no principles of their own; they are guided by the heart, and depend for their own conduct, upon that of the men they love.

Men are the cause of women not loving one another. [Fr., Les hommes sont la cause que les femmes ne s'aiment point.]

Piety with some people, but especially with women, is either a passion, or an infirmity of age, or a fashion which must be followed.

Women are at little trouble to express what they do not feel; but men are still at less to express what they do feel.

It is because of men that women dislike one another.