Jean de La Bruyère Quotes
1645–1696 France
Jean de La Bruyère (16 August 1645 – 10 May 1696) was a French essayist and moralist.
- France
- Academics
- Essayists
- Philosophers
- Satirists
Also known as: Jean de La Bruyere, Jean de la Bruyère, La Bruyère, La Bruyère, Jean de
Random Jean de La Bruyère quote
111 quotes
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)
Between good sense and good taste there is the difference between cause and effect.
There are but two ways of rising in the world: either by one's own industry or profiting by the foolishness of others.
When a secret is revealed, it is the fault of the man who confided it.
Men blush less for their crimes than for their weaknesses and vanity.
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)
A fool is one whom simpletons believe to be a man of merit.
Men are the cause of women not loving one another.
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)
We perceive when love begins and when it declines by our embarrassment when alone together.
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)
The favor of princes does not preclude the existence of merit, and yet does not prove that it exists.
We can recognize the dawn and the decline of love by the uneasiness we feel when alone together.
Les Caractères (1688)
Children have neither past nor future; and that which seldom happens to us, they rejoice in the present.
You think him to be your dupe; if he feigns to be so who is the greater dupe, he or you?
Life is a tragedy for those who feel, and a comedy for those who think.