JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE QUOTES
French philosopher and moralist (1645-1696)
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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 BRUYÈRE
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"Of Mankind", Les Caractères
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We come too late to say anything which has not been said already.
JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE
"Of Works of the Mind", Les Caractères
What can be more discouraging to a man than to doubt if his soul be material, like a stone or a reptile, and subject to corruption like the vilest creatures? And does it not prove much more strength of mind and grandeur to be able to conceive the idea of a Being superior to all other beings, by whom and for whom all things were made ; of a Being absolutely perfect and pure, without beginning or end, of whom our soul is the image, and of whom, if I may say so, it is a part, because it is spiritual and immortal?
JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE
"Of Freethinkers", Les Caractères
When we lavish our money we rob our heir; when we merely save it we rob ourselves.
JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE
"Of the Gifts of Fortune", Les Caractères
A man who parades his piety is one who, under an atheist king, would be an atheist.
JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE
Les Caractères ou les Moeurs de ce siecle
It is better to expose ourselves to ingratitude than to neglect our duty to the distressed.
JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE
"Of the Affections", Les Caractères
We perceive when love begins and when it declines by our perplexity when alone.
JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE
"Of the Affections", Les Caractères
When a plain-looking woman is loved, it is certain to be very passionately ; for either her influence on her lover is irresistible, or she has some secret and more irresistible charms than those of beauty.
JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE
"Of the Affections", Les Caractères
Nothing is easier for passion than to overcome reason, but the greatest triumph is to conquer a man's own interests.
JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE
"Of the Affections", Les Caractères
There are some sordid minds, formed of slime and filth, to whom interest and gain are what glory and virtue are to superior souls; they feel no other pleasure but to acquire money.
JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE
Les Caractères
To speak and to offend is with some people but one and the same thing.
JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE
"Of Society and of Conversation", Les Caractères
Whatever is certain in death is slightly alleviated by what is not so infallible; the time when it shall happen is undefined, but it is more or less connected with the infinite, and what we call eternity.
JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE
"Of Mankind", Les Caractères
A man must be very inert to have no character at all.
JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE
"Of Society and of Conversation", Les Caractères
He must be a dull Fellow indeed, whom neither Love, Malice, nor Necessity, can inspire with Wit.
JEAN DE LA BRUYERE
The Characters or Manners of the Present Age
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
The Characters or Manners of the Present Age
The same amount of pride which makes a man treat haughtily his inferiors, makes him cringe servilely; to those above him.
JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE
"Of the Gifts of Fortune", Les Caractères
Women become attached to men through the favours they grant them, but men are cured of their love through those same favours.
JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE
"Of Women", Les Caractères
False modesty is the last refinement of vanity.
JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE
attributed, Day's Collacon
It is a fool's privilege to laugh at an intelligent man.
JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE
"Of Society and of Conversation", Les Caractères
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 BRUYÈRE
"Of the Affections", Les Caractères