Quotes from Vauvenargues

Prosperity makes few friends.

If anyone accuses me of contradicting myself I reply: Because I have been wrong once or oftener I do not aspire to be always wrong.

Servitude debases men to the point where they end up liking it.

Patience is the art of hoping.

To achieve great things, we must live as though we were never going to die.

The greatest evil which fortune can inflict on men is to endow them with small talents and great ambitions.

Necessity relieves us from the embarrassment of choice.

We don't have enough time to premeditate all our actions.

Action makes more fortunes than caution.

The most absurd and reckless aspirations have sometimes led to extraordinary success.

The mind reaches great heights only by spurts.

No one is more liable to make mistakes than the man who acts only on reflection.

Great thoughts always come from the heart.

The lazy are always wanting to do something.

All men are born truthful, and die liars.

When we are sick our virtues and our vices are in abeyance.

Prosperity makes some friends and many enemies.

The greatest achievement of the human spirit is to live up to one's opportunities and make the most of one's resources.

When an idea is too weak to support a simple statement, it is a sign that it should be rejected.

Simple truths are a relief from grand speculations.

Man never rises to great truths without enthusiasm.

Great thoughts come from the heart.

If virtue were its own reward, it would no longer be a human quality, but supernatural.

Vice stirs up war virtue fights.