58 quotes
To laugh at men of sense is the privilege of fools.
Les Caractères (1688)
Most men make use of the first part of their life to render the last part miserable.
Les Caractères (1688)
One mark of a second-rate mind is to be always telling stories.
Les Caractères (1688)
A heap of epithets is poor praise: the praise lies in the facts, and in the way of telling them.
Les Caractères (1688)
Making a book is a craft, like making a clock; it needs more than native wit to be an author.
Les Caractères (1688)
One seeks to make the loved one entirely happy, or, if that cannot be, entirely wretched.
Les Caractères (1688)
The Opera is obviously the first draft of a fine spectacle; it suggests the idea of one.
Les Caractères (1688)
If it is true that one is poor on account of all the things one wants, the ambitious and the avaricious languish in extreme poverty.
Les Caractères (1688)
The giving is the hardest part; what does it cost to add a smile?
Les Caractères (1688)
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.
Les Caractères (1688)
There are but 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.
Les Caractères (1688)
A Man must be very inert to have no character at all.
Les Caractères (1688)
We can recognize the dawn and the decline of love by the uneasiness we feel when alone together.
Les Caractères (1688)
There is no road too long to the man who advances deliberately and without undue haste; there are no honours too distant to the man who prepares himself for them with patience.
Les Caractères (1688)
Ainsi les postes éminents rendent les grands hommes encore plus grands, et les petits beaucoup plus petits.
Les Caractères (1688)
We come too late to say anything which has not been said already.
Les Caractères (1688)
A fool is always troublesome, a man of sense perceives when he pleases or is tiresome ; he goes away the very minute before it might have been thought he stayed too long.
Les Caractères (1688)
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.
Les Caractères (1688)
La plupart des hommes emploient la meilleure partie de leur vie à rendre l'autre misérable.
Les Caractères (1688)
L'une des marques de la médiocrité de l'esprit est de toujours conter.
Les Caractères (1688)