Jean de la Bruyere Quotes About Wit

Quotes about: Wit

• Mockery is often the result of a poverty of wit.

  Jean de la Bruyere

  Poverty, Results, Wit

• 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.

  Jean de la Bruyere

  Hard Work, Men, Hands

  "Of Books". "Characters", Book by Jean De La Bruyère, www.ourcivilisation.com. 1688.

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

  Jean de la Bruyere

  Speech, Speak, Judgment

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

  Jean de la Bruyere

  Silence, Judgment, Silent

• 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.

  Jean de la Bruyere

  Men, Tongue, Speak

  "Of Society and of Conversation". "The Characters of Jean de La Bruyère", newly rendered into English by Henri Van Laun, www.bartleby.com. 1885.

• Foolish jokers are thick on the ground, and it rains insects of that sort everywhere. A good joker is a rarity; even a man who is such by nature finds it hard to sustain the part for long; it seldom happens that the man who makes us laugh wins our esteem.

  Jean de la Bruyere

  Country, Way, Kind

  "Of Society And Conversation". "Characters", Book by Jean De La Bruyère, www.ourcivilisation.com. 1688.

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

  Jean de la Bruyere

  Stairs, Wit

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

  Jean de la Bruyere

  Running, Men, Risk

• 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.

  Jean de la Bruyere

  Men, Might, Next

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

  Jean de la Bruyere

  Book, Needs, Crafts

  "Of Books". "Characters", Book by Jean De La Bruyère, www.ourcivilisation.com. 1688.

• 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.

  Jean de la Bruyere

  Science, Practice, Criticism

• 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.

  Jean de la Bruyere

  Charm, Resources, Conversation

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

  Jean de la Bruyere

  Age, Genius, Moments

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

  Jean de la Bruyere

  People, Risk, Culture

• 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!

  Jean de la Bruyere

  Beauty, Hands, Years

• 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.

  Jean de la Bruyere

  Greatness, Men, Good Man

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