Jean de La Bruyère was a French moralist and essayist of the 17th century. He was a member of the French Academy and is best known for his work Les Caractères de Théophraste, a collection of essays on human nature. His works are considered to be a cornerstone of French literary classicism and are still studied and referenced today.
Out of difficulties grow miracles. — Jean De La Bruyere
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. — Jean De La Bruyere
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. — Jean De La Bruyere
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. — Jean De La Bruyere
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! — Jean De La Bruyere
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. — Jean De La Bruyere
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.] — Jean De La Bruyere
A person's worth in this world is estimated according to the value they put on themselves. — Jean De La Bruyere
We can recognize the dawn and the decline of love by the uneasiness we feel when alone together. — Jean De La Bruyere
We seldom repent talking little, but very often talking too much. — Jean De La Bruyere
Those who make the worst use of their time are the first to complain of its shortness. — Jean De La Bruyere
A slave has but one master. An ambition man, has as many as there are people who helped him get his fortune. — Jean De La Bruyere
The first day one is a guest, the second a burden, and the third a pest. — Jean De La Bruyere
There are some men who turn a deaf ear to reason and good advice, and willfully go wrong for fear of being controlled. — Jean De La Bruyere
Politeness makes one appear outwardly as they should be within. — Jean De La Bruyere
A coxcomb is one whom simpletons believe to be a man of merit. — Jean De La Bruyere
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.] — Jean De La Bruyere
A blockhead cannot come in, nor go away, nor sit, nor rise, nor stand, like a man of sense. — Jean De La Bruyere
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. — Jean De La Bruyere
Children have neither a past nor a future. Thus they enjoy the present -- which seldom happens to us. — Jean De La Bruyere
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. — Jean De La Bruyere
A man of moderate Understanding, thinks he writes divinely: A man of good Understanding, thinks he writes reasonably. — Jean De La Bruyere
Mockery is often the result of a poverty of wit. — Jean De La Bruyere
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.] — Jean De La Bruyere
The wise person often shuns society for fear of being bored. — Jean De La Bruyere
This great misfortune -- to be incapable of solitude. — Jean De La Bruyere
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. — Jean De La Bruyere
If it be true that a man is rich who wants nothing, a wise man is a very rich man. — Jean De La Bruyere
We are valued in this world at the rate we desire to be valued. — Jean De La Bruyere
It's motive alone which gives character to the actions of men. — Jean De La Bruyere
When a secret is revealed, it is the fault of the man who confided it. — Jean De La Bruyere
Sudden love is latest cured. — Jean De La Bruyere
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. — Jean De La Bruyere
A pious man is one who would be an atheist if the king were. — Jean De La Bruyere
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. — Jean De La Bruyere
There is no excess in the world so commendable as excessive gratitude. — Jean De La Bruyere
One mark of a second-rate mind is to be always telling stories. — Jean De La Bruyere
If some persons died, and others did not die, death would be a terrible affliction. — Jean De La Bruyere
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. — Jean De La Bruyere
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. — Jean De La Bruyere
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. — Jean De La Bruyere
The most amiable people are those who least wound the self-love of others. — Jean De La Bruyere
A position of eminence makes a great person greater and a small person less. — Jean De La Bruyere
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. — Jean De La Bruyere
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. — Jean De La Bruyere
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
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. — Jean De La Bruyere
Avoid making yourself the subject of conversation. — Jean De La Bruyere
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. — Jean De La Bruyere
A heap of epithets is poor praise: the praise lies in the facts, and in the way of telling them. — Jean De La Bruyere
Love and friendship exclude each other. — Jean De La Bruyere
We trust our secrets to our friends, but they escape from us in love. — Jean De La Bruyere
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. — Jean De La Bruyere
The regeneration of society is the regeneration of society by individual education. — Jean De La Bruyere
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. — Jean De La Bruyere
Praise, of all things, is the most powerful excitement to commendable actions, and animates us in our enterprises. — Jean De La Bruyere
Cheats easily believe others as bad as themselves; there is no deceiving them, nor do they long deceive. — Jean De La Bruyere
Avoid lawsuits beyond all things; they pervert your conscience, impair your health, and dissipate your property. — Jean De La Bruyere
The spendthrift robs his heirs the miser robs himself. — Jean De La Bruyere
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. — Jean De La Bruyere
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. — Jean De La Bruyere
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
The Opera is obviously the first draft of a fine spectacle; it suggests the idea of one. — Jean De La Bruyere
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. — Jean De La Bruyere
There are only two ways of getting on in the world: by one's own industry, or by the stupidity of others. — Jean De La Bruyere
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
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. — Jean De La Bruyere
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. — Jean De La Bruyere
The court is like a palace of marble; it's composed of people very hard and very polished. — Jean De La Bruyere
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. — Jean De La Bruyere
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. — Jean De La Bruyere
A man often runs the risk of throwing away a witticism if he admits that it is his own. — Jean De La Bruyere
Modesty is to merit, what shade is to figures in a picture; it gives it strength and makes it stand out. — Jean De La Bruyere
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. — Jean De La Bruyere
You think him to be your dupe; if he feigns to be so who is the greater dupe, he or you? — Jean De La Bruyere
Men are the cause of women not loving one another.
[Fr., Les hommes sont la cause que les femmes ne s'aiment point.] — Jean De La Bruyere
I take sanctuary in an honest mediocrity. — Jean De La Bruyere
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. — Jean De La Bruyere
To delay is injustice. — Jean De La Bruyere
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. — Jean De La Bruyere
The most delicate, the most sensible of all pleasures, consists in promoting the pleasure of others. — Jean De La Bruyere
A wise man is not governed by others, nor does he try to govern them; he prefers that reason alone prevail. — Jean De La Bruyere
Nothing keeps longer than a middling fortune, and nothing melts away sooner than a large one. — Jean De La Bruyere
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. — Jean De La Bruyere
We need not envy certain people their great wealth; they acquired it at a heavy cost, which would not suit us; they staked their rest, their health, their honour and their conscience to acquire it, the price is too high, and there is nothing to be gained by such a bargain. — Jean De La Bruyere
The fool only is troublesome. A plan of sense perceives when he is agreeable or tiresome; he disappears the very minute before he would have been thought to have stayed too long. — Jean De La Bruyere
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. — Jean De La Bruyere
Making a book is a craft, like making a clock; it needs more than native wit to be an author. — Jean De La Bruyere
Love has this in common with scruples, that it becomes embittered by the reflections and the thoughts that beset us to free ourselves. — Jean De La Bruyere
Life Lessons by Jean De La Bruyere
Jean De La Bruyere believed that life should be lived with moderation and balance, and that one should strive to be content with what they have.
He also encouraged people to be honest and humble, and to accept criticism gracefully.
Lastly, he taught that one should strive to be kind and generous, and to always be mindful of how their actions affect others.
Citation
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