Jean de la Bruyere Quotes - Page 13

Quotes about:

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

  Jean de la Bruyere

  Age, Genius, Moments

  7 Copy quote

• 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

  7 Copy quote

• 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.

  Jean de la Bruyere

  Real, Men, Merit

  9 Copy quote

• 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?

  Jean de la Bruyere

  Giving, Grace, Doe

  4 Copy quote

• 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.

  Jean de la Bruyere

  Stupid, Two, Support

  10 Copy quote

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

  Jean de la Bruyere

  Want, Intellect, Prove

  4 Copy quote

• Logic is the art of convincing us some truth.

  Jean de la Bruyere

  Art, Logic, Convincing

  4 Copy quote

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

  Jean de la Bruyere

  Men, Miserable, Latter

  4 Copy quote

• 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.

  Jean de la Bruyere

  Pain, Attitude, Glasses

  5 Copy quote

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

  Jean de la Bruyere

  Hero, Valet

  4 Copy quote

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

  Jean de la Bruyere

  People, Deception, Knavery

  5 Copy quote

• 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.

  Jean de la Bruyere

  Men, Thinking, Brain

  4 Copy quote

• We rarely repent of speaking little, but often of speaking too much.

  Jean de la Bruyere

  Speech, Littles, Too Much

  4 Copy quote

• 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.

  Jean de la Bruyere

  Criticism, Would Be, Accomplished

  4 Copy quote

• Courtly manners are contagious; they are caught at Versailles.

  Jean de la Bruyere

  Versailles, Manners, Caught

  58 Copy quote

• 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.

  Jean de la Bruyere

  Life, Blessing, Giving

  4 Copy quote

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

  Jean de la Bruyere

  Men, Dignity, Great Men

  7 Copy quote

• 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.

  Jean de la Bruyere

  Evil, Design, Innocent

  4 Copy quote

• 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.

  Jean de la Bruyere

  Men, Speak, Praise

  7 Copy quote

• 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.

  Jean de la Bruyere

  Revenge, Hate, Enemy

  4 Copy quote

• 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.

  Jean de la Bruyere

  Men, Perfection, Understanding

  4 Copy quote

• They that have lived a single day have lived an age.

  Jean de la Bruyere

  Life, Birthday, Age

  4 Copy quote

• 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.

  4 Copy quote

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

  Jean de la Bruyere

  Wrinkles, Age, Dresses

  4 Copy quote

• 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.

  Jean de la Bruyere

  Self, Names, Employment

  7 Copy quote

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