Top quotes by Jean de la Bruyere

Two persons cannot long be friends if they cannot forgive each other's little failings. Votes: 27

When a work lifts your spirits and inspires bold and noble thoughts in you, do not look for any other standard to judge by: the work is good, the product of a master craftsman. Votes: 26

At the beginning and at the end of love, the two lovers are embarrassed to find themselves alone. Votes: 20

There is no road too long to the man who advances deliberately and without undue haste; there are no honors too distant to the man who prepares himself for them with patience. Votes: 14

Love and friendship exclude each other. Votes: 13

The passion of hatred is so long lived and so obstinate a malady that the surest sign of death in a sick person is their desire for reconciliation. Votes: 12

The great gift of conversation lies less in displaying it ourselves than in drawing it out of others. He who leaves your company pleased with himself and his own cleverness is perfectly well pleased with you. Votes: 12

The first day one is a guest, the second a burden, and the third a pest. Votes: 11

Grief at the absence of a loved one is happiness compared to life with a person one hates. Votes: 10

Next to sound judgment, diamonds and pearls are the rarest things in the world. Votes: 10

The very impossibility in which I find myself to prove that God is not, discovers to me his existence. Votes: 10

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. Votes: 10

If some persons died, and others did not die, death would be a terrible affliction. Votes: 8

We must laugh before we are happy, for fear of dying without having laughed at all. Votes: 8

There are only three events in a man's life; birth, life, and death; he is not conscious of being born, he dies in pain, and he forgets to live. Votes: 7

Everything has been said, and we are more than seven thousand years of human thought too late. Votes: 6

Children have neither a past nor a future. Thus they enjoy the present, which seldom happens to us. Votes: 6

It is boorish to live ungraciously: the giving is the hardest part; what does it cost to add a smile? Votes: 6

Between good sense and good taste there lies the difference between a cause and its effect. Votes: 6

A position of eminence makes a great person greater and a small person less. Votes: 6

I would not like to see a person who is sober, moderate, chaste and just say that there is no God. They would speak disinterestedly at least, but such a person is not to be found. Votes: 6

Making a book is a craft, like making a clock; it needs more than native wit to be an author. Votes: 5

Men blush less for their crimes than for their weaknesses and vanity. Votes: 5

Children enjoy the present because they have neither a past nor a future. Votes: 5

We should keep silent about those in power; to speak well of them almost implies flattery; to speak ill of them while they are alive is dangerous, and when they are dead is cowardly. Votes: 5

A slave has but one master; an ambitious man has as many masters as there are people who may be useful in bettering his position. Votes: 5

To be among people one loves, that's sufficient; to dream, to speak to them, to be silent among them, to think of indifferent things; but among them, everything is equal. Votes: 4

As favor and riches forsake a man, we discover in him the foolishness they concealed, and which no one perceived before. Votes: 3

The exact contrary of what is generally believed is often the truth. Votes: 2

It's motive alone which gives character to the actions of men. Votes: 2

The wise person often shuns society for fear of being bored. Votes: 0

Man has but three events in his life: to be born, to live, and to die. He is not conscious of his birth, he suffers at his death and he forgets to live. Votes: 0

The Opera is obviously the first draft of a fine spectacle; it suggests the idea of one. Votes: 0

Liberality consists less in giving a great deal than in gifts well-timed. Votes: 0

One mark of a second-rate mind is to be always telling stories. Votes: 0

The sweetest of all sounds is that of the voice of the woman we love. Votes: 0

There are certain things in which mediocrity is not to be endured, such as poetry, music, painting, public speaking. Votes: 0

Two quite opposite qualities equally bias our minds - habits and novelty. Votes: 0

Politeness makes one appear outwardly as they should be within. Votes: 0

The pleasure we feel in criticizing robs us from being moved by very beautiful things. Votes: 0

When a book raises your spirit, and inspires you with noble and manly thoughts, seek for no other test of its excellence. It is good, and made by a good workman. Votes: 0

If our life is unhappy it is painful to bear; if it is happy it is horrible to lose, So the one is pretty equal to the other. Votes: 0

All confidence placed in another is dangerous if it is not perfect, for on almost all occasions we ought to tell everything or to conceal everything. We have already told too much of our secret, if one single circumstance is to be kept back. Votes: 0

The slave has but one master, the ambitious man has as many as there are persons whose aid may contribute to the advancement of his fortunes. Votes: 0

The beginning and the end of love are both marked by embarrassment when the two find themselves alone. [Fr., Le commencement et le declin de l'amour se font sentir par l'embarras ou l'on est de se trouver seuls.] Votes: 0

You may drive a dog off the King's armchair, and it will climb into the preacher's pulpit; he views the world unmoved, unembarrassed, unabashed. Votes: 0

No road is to long for him who advances slowly and does not hurry and no attainment is beyond his reach who equips himself with patience to achieve it Votes: 0

A man of moderate Understanding, thinks he writes divinely: A man of good Understanding, thinks he writes reasonably. Votes: 0

A man starts upon a sudden, takes Pen, Ink, and Paper, and without ever having had a thought of it before, resolves within himself he will write a Book; he has no Talent at Writing, but he wants fifty Guineas. Votes: 0

Banter is often a proof of want of intelligence. Votes: 0

A man must have very eminent qualities to hold his own without being polite. Votes: 0

A long disease seems to be a halting place between life and death, that death itself may be a comfort to those who die and to those who are left behind. Votes: 0

A blockhead cannot come in, nor go away, nor sit, nor rise, nor stand, like a man of sense. Votes: 0

Caprice in woman is the antidote to beauty. Votes: 0

I call those men worldly, earthly, or coarse, whose hearts and minds are wholly fixed on this earth, that small part of the universe they are placed in ; who value and love nothing beyond it ; whose minds are as cramped as that narrow spot of ground they call their estate, of which the extent is measured, the acres are numbered, and the limits well known. Votes: 0

There is no excess in the world so commendable as excessive gratitude. Votes: 0

We meet With few utterly dull and stupid souls: the sublime and transcendent are still fewer; the generality of mankind stand between these two extremes: the interval is filled with multitudes of ordinary geniuses, but all very useful, and the ornaments and supports of the commonwealth. Votes: 0

Incivility is not a Vice of the Soul, but the effect of several Vices; of Vanity, Ignorance of Duty, Laziness, Stupidity, Distraction, Contempt of others, and Jealousy. Votes: 0

Children are contemptuous, haughty, irritable, envious, sneaky, selfish, lazy, flighty, timid, liars and hypocrites, quick to laugh and cry, extreme in expressing joy and sorrow, especially about trifles, they'll do anything to avoid pain but they enjoy inflicting it: little men already. Votes: 0

For a woman to be at once a coquette and a bigot is more than the humblest of husbands can bear; she should mercifully choose between the two. Votes: 0

A coquette is one that is never to be persuaded out of the passion she has to please, nor out of a good opinion of her own beauty: time and years she regards as things that only wrinkle and decay other women, forgetting that age is written in the face, and that the same dress which became her when she was young now only makes her look older. Votes: 0

The court is like a palace of marble; it's composed of people very hard and very polished. Votes: 0

Sudden love is latest cured. Votes: 0

The reason that women do not love one another is - men. Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

There are some men who turn a deaf ear to reason and good advice, and willfully go wrong for fear of being controlled. Votes: 0

Caprice in women often infringes upon the rules of decency. Votes: 0

We can recognize the dawn and the decline of love by the uneasiness we feel when alone together. Votes: 0

The rarest things in the world, next to a spirit of discernment, are diamonds and pearls. [Fr., Apres l'esprit de discernement, ce qu'il y a au monde de plus rare, ce sont les diamants et les perles.] Votes: 0

Out of difficulties grow miracles. Votes: 0

I am not astonished that men who lean, as it were, on an atom, should stumble at the smallest efforts they make for discovering the truth ; that, being so short-sighted, they do not reach beyond the heavens and the stars, to contemplate God Himself. Votes: 0

Favor exalts a man above his equals, but his dismissal from that favor places him below them. Votes: 0

A prince wants only the pleasure of private life to complete his happiness. Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

We perceive when love begins and when it declines by our embarrassment when alone together. Votes: 0

Laziness begat wearisomeness, and this put men in quest of diversions, play and company, on which however it is a constant attendant; he who works hard, has enough to do with himself otherwise. Votes: 0

A heap of epithets is poor praise: the praise lies in the facts, and in the way of telling them. Votes: 0

We should laugh before being happy, for fear of dying without having laughed. Votes: 0

The pleasure of criticizing takes away from us the pleasure of being moved by some very fine things. Votes: 0

To forget someone means to think of him. Votes: 0

There are certain things in which mediocrity is intolerable: poetry, music, painting, public eloquence. What torture it is to hear a frigid speech being pompously declaimed, or second-rate verse spoken with all a bad poet's bombast! Votes: 0

It is very rare to find ground which produces nothing; if it is not covered with flowers, with fruit trees and grains, it produces briers and pines. It is the same with man; if he is not virtuous, he becomes vicious. Votes: 0

Born merely for the purpose of digestion. Votes: 0

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! Votes: 0

Both as to high and low indifferently, men are prepossessed, charmed, fascinated by success; successful crimes are praised very much like virtue itself, and good fortune is not far from occupying the place of the whole cycle of virtues. It must be an atrocious act, a base and hateful deed, which success would not be able to justify. Votes: 0

The very impossibility which I find to prove that God is not, discovers to me his existence. Votes: 0

All of our unhappiness comes from our inability to be alone. Votes: 0

Jesting is often only indigence of intellect. Votes: 0

A judge's duty is to grant justice, but his practice is to delay it: even those judges who know their duty adhere to the general practice. Votes: 0

The finest pleasure is kindness to others. Votes: 0

We never deceive for a good purpose: knavery adds malice to falsehood. Votes: 0

All men's misfortunes spring from their hatred of being alone. Votes: 0

A mediocre mind thinks it writes divinely; a good mind thinks it writes reasonably. Votes: 0

The spendthrift robs his heirs the miser robs himself. Votes: 0

Mockery is often the result of a poverty of wit. Votes: 0

A vain man finds it wise to speak good or ill of himself; a modest man does not talk of himself. Votes: 0

Modesty is to merit, what shade is to figures in a picture; it gives it strength and makes it stand out. Votes: 0

It is motive alone that gives real value to the actions of men, and disinterestedness puts the cap to it. Votes: 0

Children are overbearing, supercilious, passionate, envious, inquisitive, egotistical, idle, fickle, timid, intemperate, liars, and dissemblers; they laugh and weep easily, are excessive in their joys and sorrows, and that about the most trifling objects; they bear no pain, but like to inflict it on others; already they are men. Votes: 0

Lofty posts make great men greater still, and small men much smaller. Votes: 0

When we have run through all forms of government, without partiality to that we were born under, we are at a loss with which to side; they are all a compound of good and evil. It is therefore most reasonable and safe to value that of our own country above all others, and to submit to it. Votes: 0

All the worth of some people lies in their name; upon a closer inspection it dwindles to nothing, but from a distance it deceives us. Votes: 0

I do not doubt but that genuine piety is the spring of peace of mind; it enables us to bear the sorrows of life, and lessens the pangs of death: the same cannot be said of hypocrisy. Votes: 0

A pious man is one who would be an atheist if the king were. Votes: 0

The court is like a palace built of marble; I mean that it is made up of very hard but very polished people. [Fr., La cour est comme un edifice bati de marbre; je veux dire qu'elle est composee d'hommes fort durs mais fort polis.] Votes: 0

I take sanctuary in an honest mediocrity. Votes: 0

An assembly of the states, a court of justice, shows nothing so serious and grave as a table of gamesters playing very high; a melancholy solicitude clouds their looks; envy and rancor agitate their minds while the meeting lasts, without regard to friendship, alliances, birth or distinctions. Votes: 0

The regeneration of society is the regeneration of society by individual education. Votes: 0

Generosity lies less in giving much than in giving at the right moment. Votes: 0

Widows, like ripe fruit, drop easily from their perch. Votes: 0

We see men fall from high estate on account of the very faults through which they attained it Votes: 0

As long as men are liable to die and are desirous to live, a physician will be made fun of, but he will be well paid Votes: 0

The very essence of politeness is to take care that by our words and actions we make other people pleased with us as well as with themselves. Votes: 0

The unnamed should not be mistaken for the nonexistent. Votes: 0

He who tip-toes cannot stand; he who strides cannot walk. Votes: 0

It is a sad thing when men have neither the wit to speak well nor the judgment to hold their tongues. Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

We trust our secrets to our friends, but they escape from us in love. Votes: 0

Tyranny has no need of arts or sciences, for its policy, which is very shallow and without any refinement, only consists in shedding blood. Votes: 0

Those who make the worst use of their time are the first to complain of its shortness. Votes: 0

A coxcomb is one whom simpletons believe to be a man of merit. Votes: 0

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.] Votes: 0

We are more sociable, and get on better with people by the heart than the intellect. Votes: 0

Grief that is dazed and speechless is out of fashion: the modern woman mourns her husband loudly and tells you the whole story of his death, which distresses her so much that she forgets not the slightest detail about it. Votes: 0

We seldom repent talking little, but very often talking too much. Votes: 0

Profound ignorance makes a man dogmatic. The man who knows nothing thinks he is teaching others what he has just learned himself; the man who knows a great deal can't imagine that what he is saying is not common knowledge, and speaks more indifferently. Votes: 0

There is as much trickery required to grow rich by a stupid book as there is folly in buying it. Votes: 0

A man has made great progress in cunning when he does not seem too clever to others. Votes: 0

Logic is the art of making truth prevail. Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

Rarely do they appear great before their valets. [Fr., Rarement ils sont grands vis-a-vis de leur valets-de-chambre.] Votes: 0

Courtly manners are contagious; they are caught at Versailles. Votes: 0

Avoid lawsuits beyond all things; they pervert your conscience, impair your health, and dissipate your property. Votes: 0

Marriage, it seems, confines every man to his proper rank. Votes: 0

Poverty may be the mother of crime, but lack of good sense is the father. Votes: 0

No man is so perfect, so necessary to his friends, as to give them no cause to miss him less. Votes: 0

Time makes friendship stronger, but love weaker. Votes: 0

There is not in the world so toilsome a trade as the pursuit of fame; life concludes before you have so much as sketched your work. Votes: 0

A man can keep another's secret better than his own. A woman her own better than others. Votes: 0

A person's worth in this world is estimated according to the value he puts on himself. Votes: 0

Manners carry the world for the moment, character for all time. Votes: 0

If poverty is the mother of all crimes, lack of intelligence is the father. Votes: 0

We must laugh before we are happy, for fear we die before we laugh at all. Votes: 0

That man is good who does good to others; if he suffers on account of the good he does, he is very good; if he suffers at the hands of those to whom he has done good, then his goodness is so great that it could be enhanced only by greater sufferings; and if he should die at their hands, his virtue can go no further: it is heroic, it is perfect. Votes: 0

Children have neither past nor future; they enjoy the present, which very few of us do. Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

Love begins with love ; and the warmest friendship cannot change even to the coldest love. Votes: 0

Let us not envy some men their accumulated riches; their burden would be too heavy for us; we could not sacrifice, as they do, health, quiet, honor and conscience, to obtain them: It is to pay so dear from them that the bargain is a loss. Votes: 0

The most delicate, the most sensible of all pleasures, consists in promoting the pleasure of others. Votes: 0

Nothing keeps longer than a middling fortune, and nothing melts away sooner than a large one. Votes: 0

It is a great misfortune neither to have enough wit to talk well nor enough judgment to be silent. Votes: 0

I am not surprised that there are gambling houses, like so many snares laid for human avarice; like abysses where many a man's money is engulfed and swallowed up without any hope of return; like frightful rocks against which the gamblers are thrown and perish. Votes: 0

An inconstant woman is one who is no longer in love; a false woman is one who is already in love with another person; a fickle woman is she who neither knows whom she loves nor whether she loves or not; and the indifferent woman, one who does not love at all. Votes: 0

The punishment of a criminal is an example to the rabble; but every decent man is concerned if an innocent person is condemned. Votes: 0

There is speaking well, speaking easily, speaking justly and speaking seasonably: It is offending against the last, to speak of entertainments before the indigent; of sound limbs and health before the infirm; of houses and lands before one who has not so much as a dwelling; in a word, to speak of your prosperity before the miserable; this conversation is cruel, and the comparison which naturally arises in them betwixt their condition and yours is excruciating. Votes: 0

He who can wait for what he desires takes the course not to be exceedingly grieved if he fails of it; he, on the contrary, who labors after a thing too impatiently thinks the success when it comes is not a recompense equal to all the pains he has been at about it. Votes: 0

Everything has been said, and we have come too late, now that men have been living and thinking for seven thousand years and more. Votes: 0

The most exquisite pleasure is giving pleasure to others. Votes: 0

Every man is valued in this world as he shows by his conduct that he wishes to be valued. Votes: 0

Discourtesy does not spring merely from one bad quality, but from several--from foolish vanity, from ignorance of what is due to others, from indolence, from stupidity, from distraction of thought, from contempt of others, from jealousy. Votes: 0

As long as men are liable to die and are desirous to live, a physician will be made fun of, but he will be well paid. Votes: 0

If this life is unhappy, it is a burden to us, which it is difficult to bear; if it is in every respect happy, it is dreadful to be deprived of it; so that in either case the result is the same, for we must exist in anxiety and apprehension. Votes: 0

False modesty is the masterpiece of vanity: showing the vain man in such an illusory light that he appears in the reputation of the virtue quite opposite to the vice which constitutes his real character; it is a deceit. Votes: 0

The sublime only paints the true, and that too in noble objects; it paints it in all its phases, its cause and its effect; it is the most worthy expression or image of this truth. Ordinary minds cannot find out the exact expression, and use synonymes. Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

Party loyalty lowers the greatest men to the petty level of the masses. Votes: 0

There are but two ways of rising in the world: either by one's own industry or profiting by the foolishness of others. [Fr., Il n'y a au monde que deux manieres de s'elever, ou par sa propre industrie, ou par l'imbecilite des autres.] Votes: 0

Nothing makes us better understand what trifling things Providence thinks He bestows on men in granting them wealth, money, dignities, and other advantages, than the manner in which they are distributed and the kind of men who have the largest share. Votes: 0

Nothing is easier for passion than to overcome reason, but the greatest triumph is to conquer a man's own interests. Votes: 0

Life is short, if we are only said to live when we enjoy ourselves; and if we were merely to count up the hours we spent agreeably, a great number of years would hardly make up a life of a few months. Votes: 0

Life is short and tedious, and is wholly spent in wishing; we trust to find rest and enjoyment at some future time, often at an age when our best blessings, youth and health, have already left us. When at last I that time has arrived, it surprises us in the midst of fresh desires; we have got no farther when we are attacked by a fever which kills us; if we had been cured, it would only have been to give us more time for other desires. Votes: 0

We should like those whom we love to receive all their happiness, or, if this were impossible, all their unhappiness from our hands. Votes: 0

I cannot forbid a person to marry several wives, for it does not contradict Scripture. MARTIN LUTHER, letter to Chancellor Gregory Brück, January 13, 1524 Marriage, it seems, confines every man to his proper rank. Votes: 0

A party spirit betrays the greatest men to act as meanly as the vulgar herd. Votes: 0

Some people pretend they never were in love and never wrote poetry; two weaknesses which they dare not own -- one of the heart, the other of the mind. Votes: 0

The fear of old age disturbs us, yet we are not certain of becoming old. Votes: 0

When we lavish our money we rob our heir; when we merely save it we rob ourselves. Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

Extremes are vicious, and proceed from men; compensation is just, and proceeds from God. Votes: 0

He who excels in his art so as to carry it to the utmost height of perfection of which it is capable may be said in some measure to go beyond it: his transcendent productions admit of no appellations. Votes: 0

During the course of our life we now and then enjoy some pleasures so inviting, and have some encounters of so tender a nature, that though they are forbidden, it is but natural to wish that they were at least allowable. Nothing can be more delightful, except it be to abandon them for virtue's sake. Votes: 0

There is nothing men are so anxious to keep, and yet are so careless about, as life. Votes: 0

It is a great misfortune not to possess sufficient wit to speak well, nor sufficient judgment to keep silent. Votes: 0

Most men spend the first half of their lives making the second half miserable. Votes: 0

A show of a certain amount of honesty is in any profession or business the surest way of growing rich. Votes: 0

A man can deceive a woman by his sham attachment to her provided he does not have a real attachment elsewhere. Votes: 0

To make a book is as much a trade as to make a clock; something more than intelligence is required to become an author. Votes: 0

Hatred is so lasting and stubborn, that reconciliation on a sickbed certainly forebodes death. Votes: 0

To delay is injustice. Votes: 0

There exist some evils so terrible and some misfortunes so horrible that we dare not think of them, whilst their very aspect makes us shudder; but if they happen to fall on us, we find ourselves stronger than we imagined, we grapple with our ill luck, and behave better than we expected we should. Votes: 0

A man often runs the risk of throwing away a witticism if he admits that it is his own. Votes: 0

If it be true that a man is rich who wants nothing, a wise man is a very rich man. Votes: 0

The best way to get on in the world is to make people believe it's to their advantage to help you. Votes: 0

Women become attached to men by the intimacies they grant them; men are cured of their love by the same intimacies. Votes: 0

A man must be completely wanting in intelligence if he does not show it when actuated by love, malice, or necessity. Votes: 0

It is better to expose ourselves to ingratitude than to neglect our duty to the distressed. Votes: 0

The lives of heroes have enriched history, and history has adorned the actions of heroes ; and thus I cannot say whether the historians are more indebted to those who provided them with such noble materials, or those great men to their historians. Votes: 0

It is a fool's privilege to laugh at an intelligent man. Votes: 0

A man only goes and confesses his faults to the world when his self will not acknowledge or listen to them. WYNDHAM LEWIS, Tarr Two persons will not be friends long if they are not inclined to pardon each other's little failings. Votes: 0

It is weakness which makes us hate an enemy and seek revenge, and it is idleness that pacifies us and causes us to neglect it. Votes: 0

We never deceive people to benefit them, for knavery is a compound of wickedness and falsehood. Votes: 0

Death happens but once, yet we feel it every moment of our lives; it is worse to dread it than to suffer it. Votes: 0

When life is unhappy it is hard to endure, when it is happy it is terrible to think of it ending. Both amount to the same thing in the end. Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

To how many girls has a great beauty been of no other use but to make them expect a large fortune! Votes: 0

A faithless woman, if known to be such by the person concerned, is but faithless ; if she is believed faithful, she is treacherous. Votes: 0

We must strive to make ourselves really worthy of some employment. We need pay no attention to anything else; the rest is the business of others. Votes: 0

Envy and hatred go together. Mutually strengthened by the fact pursue the same object. Votes: 0

The Great slight the men of wit, who have nothing but wit; the men of wit despise the Great, who have nothing but greatness; the good man pities them both, if with greatness or wit they have not virtue. Votes: 0

The same vices which are huge and insupportable in others we do not feel in ourselves. Votes: 0

A vain man finds his account in speaking good or evil of himself. Votes: 0

The opposite of what is noised about concerning men and things is often the truth. [Fr., Le contraire des bruits qui courent des affaires ou des personnes est souvent la verite.] Votes: 0

There are some who speak one moment before they think Votes: 0

The mind, like all other things, will become impaired, the sciences are its food,--they nourish, but at the same time they consume it. Votes: 0

A man's worth is estimated in this world according to his conduct. Votes: 0

A woman with eyes only for one person, or with eyes always averted from him, creates exactly the same impression. Votes: 0

Most men employ the first part of life to make the other part miserable. [Fr., La plupart des hommes emploient la premiere part vie a rendre l'autre miserable.] Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

Friendship * * * is a long time in forming, it is of slow growth, through many trials and months of familiarity. Votes: 0

One faithful Friend is enough for a man's self, 'tis much to meet with such an one, yet we can't have too many for the sake of others. Votes: 0

Men make the best friends. Votes: 0

We all covet wealth, but not its perils. Votes: 0

We must confess that at present the rich predominate, but the future will be for the virtuous and ingenious. Votes: 0

A man who knows the court is master of his gestures, of his eyes and of his face; he is profound, impenetratable; he dissimulates bad offices, smiles at his enemies, controls his irritation, disguises his passions, belies his heartm speaks and acts against his feelings. Votes: 0

The doctors allow one to die, the charlatans kill. Votes: 0

Genius and great abilities are often wanting; sometimes, only opportunities. Some deserve praise for what they have done; others for what they would have done. Votes: 0

It would be a kind of ferocity to reject indifferently all sorts of praise. One should be glad to have that which comes from good men who praise in sincerity things that are really praiseworthy. Votes: 0

Discretion is the perfection of reason, and a guide to us in all the duties of life. It is only found in men of sound sense and understanding. Votes: 0

Misers are neither relations, nor friends, nor citizens, nor Christians, nor perhaps even human beings. Votes: 0

If you wish to be held in esteem, you must ssociate only with those who estimable. Votes: 0

A man reveals his character even in the simplest things he does. Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

A woman is easily governed, if a man takes her in hand. Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

I never have wit until I am below stairs. [Fr., Je n'ai jamais d'esprit qu'au bas de l'escalier.] Votes: 0

It is virtue which should determine us in the choice of our friends, without inquiring into their good or evil fortune. Votes: 0

There is nothing which continues longer than a moderate fortune; nothing of which one sees sooner the end than a large fortune. Votes: 0

A man is thirty years old before he has any settled thoughts of his fortune; it is not completed before fifty. He falls to building in his old age, and dies by the time his house is in a condition to be painted and glazed. Votes: 0

There is what is called the highway to posts and honor, and there is a cross and by way, which is much the shortest. Votes: 0

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.] Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

Logic is the art of convincing us some truth. Votes: 0

Jesting, often, only proves a want of intellect. [Fr., La moquerie est souvent une indigence d'esprit.] Votes: 0

The generality of men expend the early part of their lives in contributing to render the latter part miserable. Votes: 0

Some young people do not sufficiently understand the advantages of natural charms, and how much they would gain by trusting to them entirely. They weaken these gifts of heaven, so rare and fragile, by affected manners and an awkward imitation. Their tones and their gait are borrowed; they study their attitudes before the glass until they have lost all trace of natural manner, and, with all their pains, they please but little. Votes: 0

It is a proof of boorishness to confer a favor with a bad grace; it is the act of giving that is hard and painful. How little does a smile cost? Votes: 0

Intelligence is to genius as the whole is in proportion to its part. [Fr., Entre esprit et talent il y a la proportion du tout a sa partie.] Votes: 0

Wit is the god of moments, but Genius is the god of ages. Votes: 0

The whole genius of an author consists in describing well, and delineating character well. Homer, Plato, Virgil, Horace only excel other writers by their expressions and images; we must indicate what is true if we mean to write naturally, forcibly and delicately. Votes: 0

Praise, of all things, is the most powerful excitement to commendable actions, and animates us in our enterprises. Votes: 0

Man makes up his mind he will preach, and he preaches. Votes: 0

Too great carelessness, equally with excess in dress, multiplies the wrinkles of old age, and makes its decay still more conspicuous. Votes: 0

A simple garb is the proper costume of the vulgar; it is cut for them, and exactly suits their measure, but it is an ornament for those who have filled up their lives with great deeds. I liken them to beauty in dishabille, but more bewitching on that account. Votes: 0

Discretion is the perfection of reason, and a guide to us in all the duties of life; cunning is a kind of instinct, that only looks out after our immediate interests and welfare. Discretion is only found in men of strong sense and good understanding; cunning is often to be met with in brutes themselves, and in persons who are but the fewest removes from them. Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

Physiognomy is not a guide that has been given us by which to judge of the character of men: it may only serve us for conjecture. [Fr., La physionomie n'est pas une regle qui nous soit donnee pour juger des hommes; elle nous peut servir de conjecture.] Votes: 0

A look of intelligence is what regularity of features is to women: it is a styule of beauty to which the most vain may aspire. [Fr., L'air spirituel est dans les hommes ce que la regularite des traits est dans les femmes: c'est le genre de beaute ou les plus vains puissent aspirer.] Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

It is worse to apprehend than to suffer. Votes: 0

It is through madness that we hate an enemy, and think of revenging ourselves; and it is through indolence that we are appeased, and do not revenge ourselves. Votes: 0

To what excesses do men rush for the sake of religion, of whose truth they are so little persuaded, and to whose precepts they pay so little regard! Votes: 0

They who, without any previous knowledge of us, think amiss of us, do us no harm; they attack not us, but the phantom of their own imagination. Votes: 0

To give awkwardly is churlishness. The most difficult part is to give, then why not add a smile? Votes: 0

When what you read elevates your mind and fills you with noble aspirations, look for no other rule by which to judge a book; it is good, and is the work of a master-hand. Votes: 0

The most important things must be said simply, for they are spoiled by bombast; whereas trivial things must be described grandly, for they are supported only by aptness of expression, tone and manner. Votes: 0

When a secret is revealed, it is the fault of the man who confided it. Votes: 0

There are only two ways by which to rise in this world, either by one's own industry or by the stupidity of others. Votes: 0

It is because of men that women dislike one another. Votes: 0

Outward simplicity befits ordinary men, like a garment made to measure for them; but it serves as an adornment to those who have filled their lives with great deeds: they might be compared to some beauty carelessly dressed and thereby all the more attractive. Votes: 0

The shortest and best way to make your fortune is to let people see clearly that it is in their interest to promote yours. Votes: 0

Nothing more clearly shows how little God esteems his gift to men of wealth, money, position and other worldly goods, than the way he distributes these, and the sort of men who are most amply provided with them. Votes: 0

A wise man neither suffers himself to be governed, nor attempts to govern others. Votes: 0

We hope to grow old and we dread old age; that is to say, we love life and we flee from death. Votes: 0

One should never risk a joke, even of the mildest and most unexceptional charters, except among people of culture and wit. Votes: 0

We seldom repent of speaking little, very often of speaking too much: a vulgar and trite maxim, which all the world knows and, but which all the world does not practice Votes: 0

The duty of a judge is to administer justice, but his practice is to delay it Votes: 0

It is easier to enrich ourselves with a thousand virtues, than to correct ourselves of a single fault. Votes: 0

How happy the station which every moment furnishes opportunities of doing good to thousands! How dangerous that which every moment exposes to the injuring of millions! Votes: 0

The noblest deeds are well enough set forth in simple language; emphasis spoils them. Votes: 0

Days, months, years fly away, and irrecoverably sink in the abyss of time. Votes: 0

Most men make use of the first part of their life to render the last part miserable. Votes: 0

There are but three events which concern man: birth, life and death. They are unconscious of their birth, they suffer when they die, and they neglect to live. Votes: 0

It requires more than mere genius to be an author. Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

Every hour in itself, as it respects us in particular, is the only one we can call our own. Votes: 0

Such a great misfortune, not to be able to be alone. Votes: 0

They that have lived a single day have lived an age. Votes: 0

False greatness is unsociable and remote: conscious of its own frailty, it hides, or at least averts its face, and reveals itself only enough to create an illusion and not be recognized as the meanness that it really is. True greatness is free, kind, familiar and popular; it lets itself be touched and handled, it loses nothing by being seen at close quarters; the better one knows it, the more one admires it. Votes: 0

Criticism is often not a science; it is a craft, requiring more good health than wit, more hard work than talent, more habit than native genius. In the hands of a man who has read widely but lacks judgment, applied to certain subjects it can corrupt both its readers and the writer himself. Votes: 0

This great misfortune, to be incapable of solitude. Votes: 0

Criticism is as often a trade as a science, requiring, as it does, more health than wit, more labour than capacity, more practice than genius. Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

Life at court does not satisfy a man, but it keeps him from being satisfied with anything else. Votes: 0

Don't wait to be happy to laugh... You may die and never have laughed. Votes: 0

No man is so perfect, so necessary to his friends as to give them no cause to miss him less. Votes: 0

The same common sense which makes an author write good things, makes him dread they are not good enough to deserve reading. Votes: 0

As riches and honor forsake a man, we discover him to be a fool, but nobody could find it out in his prosperity. Votes: 0

If it be usual to be strongly impressed by things that are scarce, why are we so little impressed by virtue? Votes: 0

Piety with some people, but especially with women, is either a passion, or an infirmity of age, or a fashion which must be followed. Votes: 0

It is often easier as well as more advantageous to conform to other men's opinions than to bring them over to ours. Votes: 0

There are some extraordinary fathers, who seem, during the whole course of their lives, to be giving their children reasons for being consoled at their death. Votes: 0

There are few wives so perfect as not to give their husbands at least once a day good reason to repent of ever having married, or at least of envying those who are unmarried. Votes: 0

The nearer we come to great men the more clearly we see that they are only men. They rarely seem great to their valets. Votes: 0

Rarely do they appear great before their valets. Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

When we are dead we are praised by those who survive us, though we frequently have no other merit than that of being no longer alive. Votes: 0

Eloquence is to the sublime what the whole is to the part. Votes: 0

Impertinent wits are a kind of insect which are in everybody's way and plentiful in all countries. Votes: 0

It is in vain to ridicule a rich fool, for the laughers will be on his side. Votes: 0

If a handsome woman allows that another woman is beautiful, we may safely conclude she excels her. Votes: 0

The flatterer does not think highly enough of himself or of others. Votes: 0

The State not seldom tolerates a comparatively great evil to keep out millions of lesser ills and inconveniences which otherwise would be inevitable and without remedy. Votes: 0

A man may have intelligence enough to excel in a particular thing and lecture on it, and yet not have sense enough to know he ought to be silent on some other subject of which he has but a slight knowledge; if such an illustrious man ventures beyond the bounds of his capacity, he loses his way and talks like a fool. Votes: 0

You think him to be your dupe; if he feigns to be so who is the greater dupe, he or you? Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

Languages are no more than the keys of Sciences. He who despises one, slights the other. Votes: 0

Make me chaste and To what excesses will men not go for the sake of a religion in which they believe so little and which they practice so imperfectly! Votes: 0

A guilty man is punished as an example for the mob; an innocent man convicted is the business of every honest citizen. Votes: 0

Women run to extremes, they are either better or worse than men. Votes: 0

It is the glory and merit of some men to write well and of others not to write at all. Votes: 0

To endeavor to forget anyone is a certain way of thinking of nothing else. Votes: 0

People reveal their character even in the simplest things they do. Fools do not enter a room, nor leave it, nor sit down, nor rise, nor are they silent, nor do they stand up, like people of sense and understanding. Votes: 0

The very essence of politeness seems to be to take care that by our words and actions we make other people pleased with us as well as with themselves. Votes: 0

A wise man is not governed by others, nor does he try to govern them; he prefers that reason alone prevail. Votes: 0

How sweet, how passing sweet, is solitude! Votes: 0

Men fall from great fortune because of the same shortcomings that led to their rise. Votes: 0

There are certain people who so ardently and passionately desire a thing, that from dread of losing it they leave nothing undone to make them lose it. Votes: 0

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.] Votes: 0

The most amiable people are those who least wound the self-love of others. Votes: 0

The fears of old age disturb us, yet how few attain it? Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

Children have neither past nor future; and that which seldom happens to us, they rejoice in the present. [Fr., Les enfants n'ont ni passe ni avenir; et, ce qui ne nous arrive guere, ils jouissent du present.] Votes: 0

A man of the world must seem to be what he wishes to be thought. Votes: 0

False modesty is the refinement of vanity. It is a lie. Votes: 0

A good author, and one who writes carefully, often discovers that the expression of which he has been in search without being able to discover it, and which he has at last found, is that which was the most simple, the most natural, and which seems as if it ought to have presented itself at once, without effort, to the mind. Votes: 0

One must laugh before one is happy, or one may die without ever laughing at all. Votes: 0

Logic is the technique by which we add conviction to truth. Votes: 0

One seeks to make the loved one entirely happy, or, if that cannot be, entirely wretched. Votes: 0

There are three great events in our lives: birth, life and death. Of birth we have no conscience; with death, we suffer; and, concerning life, we forget to live it. Votes: 0

Life is a kind of sleep: old men sleep longest, nor begin to wake but when they are to die. Votes: 0

Languages are the keys of science. Votes: 0

Men are the cause of women not loving one another. [Fr., Les hommes sont la cause que les femmes ne s'aiment point.] Votes: 0

The very impossibility in which I find myself to prove that God is not, discloses to me His existence. [Fr., L'impossibilite ou je suis de prouver que Dieu n'est pas, me decouvre son existence.] Votes: 0

Pure friendship is something which men of an inferior intellect can never taste. Votes: 0

We are valued in this world at the rate we desire to be valued. Votes: 0

When we are young we lay up for old age; when we are old we save for death. Votes: 0

A good saying often runs the risk of being thrown away when quoted as the speaker's own. [Fr., C'est souvent hasarder un bon mot et vouloir le perdre que de le donner pour sien.] Votes: 0

Young people are dazzled by the brilliancy of antithesis, and employ it. Matter-of-fact men, and those who like precision, naturally fall into comparisons and metaphor. Sprightly natures, full of fire, and whom a boundless imagination carries beyond all rules, and even what is reasonable, cannot rest satisfied even with hyperbole. As for the sublime, it is only great geniuses and those of the very highest order that are able to rise to its height. Votes: 0

Eminent station makes great men more great, and little ones less. Votes: 0

We rarely repent of speaking little, but often of speaking too much. Votes: 0

We wish to constitute all the happiness, or, if that cannot be, the misery of the one we love. Votes: 0

We come too late to say anything which has not been said already. Votes: 0

Profound ignorance makes a man dogmatical. Votes: 0

For a long time visits among lovers and professions of love are kept up through habit, after their behavior has plainly proved that love no longer exists. Votes: 0

Love, slow and gradual in its growth, is too much like friendship ever to be a violent passion. Votes: 0

Great things only require to be simply told, for they are spoiled by emphasis; but little things should be clothed in lofty language, as they are only kept up by expression, tone of voice, and style of delivery. Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

The true spirit of conversation consists more in bringing out the cleverness of others than in showing a great deal of it yourself. Votes: 0

Love receives its death-wound from aversion, and forgetfulness buries it. Votes: 0

A great mind is above insults, injustice, grief, and raillery, and would be invulnerable were it not open to compassion. Votes: 0

If women were by nature what they make themselves by art; if they were to lose suddenly all the freshness of their complexion, and their faces to become as fiery and as leaden as they make them with the red and the paint they besmear themselves with, they would consider themselves the most wretched creatures on earth. Votes: 0

Cheats easily believe others as bad as themselves; there is no deceiving them, nor do they long deceive. Votes: 0

A man must be very inert to have no character at all. Votes: 0

A man in health questions whether there is a God, and he also doubts whether it be a sin to have intercourse with a woman, who is at liberty to refuse ; but when he falls ill, or when his mistress is with child, she is discarded, and he believes in God. Votes: 0

A man who has schemed for some time can no longer do without it; all other ways of living are to him dull and insipid. Votes: 0

We ought not to make those people our enemies who might have become our friends, if we had only known them better. Votes: 0

We confide our secret to a friend, but in love it escapes us. Votes: 0

Anything is a temptation to those who dread it. Votes: 0

In all conditions of life a poor man is a near neighbor to an honest one, and a rich man is as little removed from a knave. Votes: 0

No vice exists which does not pretend to be more or less like some virtue, and which does not take advantage of this assumed resemblance. Votes: 0

The same amount of pride which makes a man treat haughtily his inferiors, makes him cringe servilely; to those above him. Votes: 0

It is not so easy to obtain a reputation by a perfect work as to enhance the value of an indifferent one by a reputation already acquired. Votes: 0

A preacher must have some intelligence to charm the people by his florid style, by his exhilarating system of morality, by the repetition of his figures of speech, his brilliant remarks and vivid descriptions ; but, after all, he has not too much of it, for if he possessed some of the right quality he would neglect these extraneous ornaments, unworthy of the Gospel, and preach naturally, forcibly, and like a Christian. Votes: 0

To bewail the loss of a person we love is a happiness compared with the necessity of living with one we hate. Votes: 0

It is no more in our power to love always than it was not to love at all. Votes: 0

The finest and most beautiful ideas on morals and manners have been swept away before our times, and nothing is left for us but to glean after the ancients and the ablest amongst the moderns. Votes: 0

A man of variable mind is not one man, but several men in one; he multiplies himself as often as he changes his taste and manners; he is not this minute what he was the last, and will not be the next what he is now; he is his own successor. Votes: 0

What the people call eloquence is the facility some persons have of speaking alone and for a long time, aided by extravagant gestures, a loud voice, and powerful lungs. Votes: 0

We never love with all our heart and all our soul but once, and that is the first time. Votes: 0

He who will not listen to any advice, nor be corrected in his writings, is a rank pedant. Votes: 0

He who only writes to suit the taste of the age, considers himself more than his writings. We should always aim at perfection, and then posterity will do us that justice which sometimes our contemporaries refuse us. Votes: 0

A man is rich whose income is larger than his expenses, and he is poor if his expenses are greater than his income. Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

When a plain-looking woman is loved, it is certain to be very passionately ; for either her influence on her lover is irresistible, or she has some secret and more irresistible charms than those of beauty. Votes: 0

Women are at little trouble to express what they do not feel; but men are still at less to express what they do feel. Votes: 0

Friendship can exist between persons of different sexes, without any coarse or sensual feelings; yet a woman always looks upon a man as a man, and so a man will look upon a woman as a woman. Votes: 0

To speak and to offend is with some people but one and the same thing. Votes: 0

To express truth is to write naturally, forcibly, and delicately. Votes: 0

We should only endeavour to think and speak correctly ourselves, without wishing to bring others over to our taste and opinions. Votes: 0

Among some people arrogance supplies the place of grandeur, inhumanity of decision, and roguery of intelligence. Votes: 0

Let us not envy a certain class of men for their enormous riches; they have paid such an equivalent for them that it would not suit us; they have given for them their peace of mind, their health, their honour, and their conscience; this is rather too dear, and there is nothing to be made out of such a bargain. Votes: 0

It is too much for a husband to have a wife who is a coquette and sanctimonious as well; she should select only one of those qualities. Votes: 0

There is a pleasure in meeting the glance of a person whom we have lately laid under some obligations. Votes: 0

Dissimulation, even the most innocent in its nature, is ever productive of embarrassment; whether the design is evil or not artifice is always dangerous and almost inevitably disgraceful. Votes: 0

The nearer we approach great men, the clearer we see that they are men. Votes: 0

Great things astonish us, and small dishearten us. Custom makes both familiar. Votes: 0

Cunning is none of the best nor worst qualities; it floats between virtue and vice; there is scarce any exigence where it may not, and perhaps ought not to be supplied by prudence. Votes: 0

All the world says of a coxcomb that he is a coxcomb; but no one dares to say so to his face, and he dies without knowing it. Votes: 0

A coxcomb is the blockhead's man of merit. Votes: 0

Duty is what goes most against the grain, because in doing that we do only what we are strictly obliged to, and are seldom much praised for it. Votes: 0

When, after having read a work, loftier thoughts arise in your mind and noble and heartfelt feelings animate you, do not look for any other rule to judge it by; it is fine and written in a masterly manner. Votes: 0

If a secret is revealed, the person who has confided it to another is to be blamed. Votes: 0

Some men promise to keep your secret and yet reveal it without knowing they are doing so; they do not wag their lips, and yet they are understood; it is read on their brow and in their eyes; it is seen through their breast; they are transparent. Votes: 0

Avoid making yourself the subject of conversation. Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

What can be more discouraging to a man than to doubt if his soul be material, like a stone or a reptile, and subject to corruption like the vilest creatures? And does it not prove much more strength of mind and grandeur to be able to conceive the idea of a Being superior to all other beings, by whom and for whom all things were made ; of a Being absolutely perfect and pure, without beginning or end, of whom our soul is the image, and of whom, if I may say so, it is a part, because it is spiritual and immortal? Votes: 0

The great charm of conversation consists less in the display of one's own wit and intelligence than in the power to draw forth the resources of others. Votes: 0

We dread old age, which are not sure of being able to attain. [Fr., L'on craint la vieillesse, que l'on n'est pas sur de pouvoir atteindre.] Votes: 0

He who has lived a day has lived an age. Votes: 0

A modest man never talks of himself. Votes: 0

The greatest part of mankind employ their first years to make their last miserable. Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

The highest reach of a news-writer is an empty Reasoning on Policy, and vain Conjectures on the public Management. Votes: 0

How many men are like trees, already strong and full grown, which are transplanted into some gardens, to the astonishment of those people who behold them in these fine spots, where they never saw them grow, and who neither know their beginning nor their progress! Votes: 0

It is difficult for a proud man ever to forgive a person who has found him at fault, and who has good grounds for complaining of him; his pride is not assuaged till he has regained the advantages he lost and put the other person in the wrong. Votes: 0

A lofty birth or a large fortune portend merit, and cause it to be the sooner noticed. Votes: 0

In art them is a point of perfection, as of goodness or maturity in nature; he who is able to perceive it, and who loves it, has perfect taste; he who does not feel it, or loves on this side or that, has an imperfect taste. Votes: 0

If men wish to be held in esteem, they must associate with those only who are estimable. Votes: 0

Amongst such as out of cunning hear all and talk little, be sure to talk less; or if you must talk, say little. Votes: 0

If you suppress the exorbitant love of pleasure and money, idle curiosity, iniquitous pursuits and wanton mirth, what a stillness would there be in the greatest cities. Votes: 0

A lovely countenance is the fairest of all sights, and the sweetest harmony is the sound of the voice of her whom we love. Votes: 0

Men blush less for their crimes than for their weaknesses and vanity. [Fr., Les hommes rougissent moins de leur crimes que de leurs faiblesses et de leur vanite.] Votes: 0

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. Votes: 0

A man unattached and without wife, if he have any genius at all, may raise himself above his original position, may mingle with the world of fashion, and hold himself on a level with the highest; this is less easy for him who is engaged; it seems as if marriage put the whole world in their proper rank. Votes: 0

Love has this in common with scruples, that it becomes embittered by the reflections and the thoughts that beset us to free ourselves. Votes: 0