Jean De La Bruyere Quotes

To delay is injustice.

Hatred is so lasting and stubborn, that reconciliation on a sickbed certainly forebodes death.

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

Nothing is easier for passion than to overcome reason, but the greatest triumph is to conquer a man's own interests.

Widows, like ripe fruit, drop easily from their perch.

Men make the best friends.

What is certain in death is somewhat softened by what is uncertain; it is an indefiniteness in the time, which holds a certain relation to the infinite, and what is called eternity.

There is no employment in the world so laborious as that of making to one's self a great name; life ends before one has scarcely made the first rough draught of his work.

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

The News-writer lies down at Night in great Tranquillity, upon a piece of News which corrupts before Morning, and which he is obliged to throw away as soon as he awakes.

We wish to constitute all the happiness, or, if that cannot be, the misery of the one we love.

As riches and honor forsake a man, we discover him to be a fool, but nobody could find it out in his prosperity.

It seems to me that the spirit of politeness is a certain attention in causing that, by our words and by our manners, others may be content with us and with themselves.

How much wit, good-nature, indulgences, how many good offices and civilities, are required among friends to accomplish in some years what a lovely face or a fine hand does in a minute!

The events we most desire do not happen; or, if they do, it is neither in the time nor in the circumstances when they would have given us extreme pleasure.

There is what is called the highway to posts and honor, and there is a cross and by way, which is much the shortest.

Pure friendship is something which men of an inferior intellect can never taste.

In Friendship we only see those faults which may be prejudicial to our friends. In love we see no faults but those by which we suffer ourselves.

It is virtue which should determine us in the choice of our friends, without inquiring into their good or evil fortune.

There is nothing which continues longer than a moderate fortune; nothing of which one sees sooner the end than a large fortune.

The highest reach of a news-writer is an empty Reasoning on Policy, and vain Conjectures on the public Management.

High birth is a gift of fortune which should never challenge esteem towards those who receive it, since it costs them neither study nor labor.

When a man puts on a Character he is a stranger to, there's as much difference between what he appears, and what he is really in himself, as there is between a VIzor and a Face.

The fears of old age disturb us, yet how few attain it?

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

The very impossibility which I find to prove that God is not, discovers to me his existence.

It is the glory and merit of some men to write well and of others not to write at all.

An egotist will always speak of himself, either in praise or in censure, but a modest man ever shuns making himself the subject of his conversation.

Women are extreme; they are better than men, or worse.

To give awkwardly is churlishness. The most difficult part is to give, then why not add a smile?

Wit is the god of moments, but Genius is the god of ages.

It is motive alone that gives real value to the actions of men, and disinterestedness puts the cap to it.

The best thing next to wit is a consciousness that it is not in us; without wit, a man might then know how to behave himself, so as not to appear to be a fool or a coxcomb.

It is a sad thing when men have neither enough intelligence to speak well nor enough sense to hold their tongues; this is the root of all impertinence.

The doctors allow one to die, the charlatans kill.

A man's worth is estimated in this world according to his conduct.

Logic is the art of making truth prevail.

Great things astonish us, and small dishearten us. Custom makes both familiar.

The punishment of a criminal is an example to the rabble; but every decent man is concerned if an innocent person is condemned.

Profane eloquence is transfered from the bar, where Le Maitre, Pucelle, and Fourcroy formerly practised it, and where it has become obsolete, to the Pulpit, where it is out of place.

This great misfortune, to be incapable of solitude.

Everything has been said, and we have come too late, now that men have been living and thinking for seven thousand years and more.

Eloquence may be found in conversations and in all kinds of writings; it is rarely found when looked for, and sometimes discovered where it is least expected.

The favor of princes does not preclude the existence of merit, and yet does not prove that it exists. [Fr., La faveur des princes n'exclut pas le merite, et ne le suppose pas aussi.]

The same principle leads us to neglect a man of merit that induces us to admire a fool. [Fr., Du meme fonds dont on neglige un homme de merite l'on sait encore admirer un sot.]

Extremes are vicious, and proceed from men; compensation is just, and proceeds from God.

It is better to expose ourselves to ingratitude than to neglect our duty to the distressed.

False modesty is the refinement of vanity. It is a lie.

If you wish to be held in esteem, you must ssociate only with those who estimable.

Love seizes us suddenly, without giving warning, and our disposition or our weakness favors the surprise; one look, one glance, from the fair fixes and determines us.