Jean de la Bruyere

The pleasure we feel in criticizing robs us from being moved by very beautiful things.

Between good sense and good taste there lies the difference between a cause and its effect.

The exact contrary of what is generally believed is often the truth.

The court is like a palace of marble; it’s composed of people very hard and very polished.

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.

A slave has but one master; an ambitious man has as many masters as there are people who may be useful in bettering his position.

Children have neither a past nor a future. Thus they enjoy the present, which seldom happens to us.

There are only 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.

Two persons cannot long be friends if they cannot forgive each other’s little failings.

One must laugh before one is happy, or one may die without ever laughing at all.

It’s motive alone which gives character to the actions of men.

A man can keep another’s secret better than his own. A woman her own better than others.

The Opera is obviously the first draft of a fine spectacle; it suggests the idea of one.

Liberality consists less in giving a great deal than in gifts well-timed.

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.

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.

No man is so perfect, so necessary to his friends, as to give them no cause to miss him less.

The first day one is a guest, the second a burden, and the third a pest.

Men blush less for their crimes than for their weaknesses and vanity.

Next to sound judgment, diamonds and pearls are the rarest things in the world.

As favor and riches forsake a man, we discover in him the foolishness they concealed, and which no one perceived before.

Making a book is a craft, like making a clock; it needs more than native wit to be an author.

One mark of a second-rate mind is to be always telling stories.

Logic is the technique by which we add conviction to truth.

There is not in the world so toilsome a trade as the pursuit of fame; life concludes before you have so much as sketched your work.

Grief at the absence of a loved one is happiness compared to life with a person one hates.

A vain man finds it wise to speak good or ill of himself; a modest man does not talk of himself.

We must laugh before we are happy, for fear of dying without having laughed at all.

If some persons died, and others did not die, death would be a terrible affliction.

Those who make the worst use of their time are the first to complain of its shortness.

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.

Even the best intentioned of great men need a few scoundrels around them; there are some things you cannot ask an honest ma to do.

The giving is the hardest part; what does it cost to add a smile?

Man has but three events in his life: to be born, to live, and to die. He is not conscious of his birth, he suffers at his death and he forgets to live.

We perceive when love begins and when it declines by our embarrassment when alone together.

Marriage, it seems, confines every man to his proper rank.

A mediocre mind thinks it writes divinely; a good mind thinks it writes reasonably.

He who tip-toes cannot stand; he who strides cannot walk.

Poverty may be the mother of crime, but lack of good sense is the father.

A pious man is one who would be an atheist if the king were.

It is a sad thing when men have neither the wit to speak well nor the judgment to hold their tongues.

Everything has been said, and we are more than seven thousand years of human thought too late.

I would not like to see a person who is sober, moderate, chaste and just say that there is no God. They would speak disinterestedly at least, but such a person is not to be found.

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.

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.

Children enjoy the present because they have neither a past nor a future.

At the beginning and at the end of love, the two lovers are embarrassed to find themselves alone.

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

Love and friendship exclude each other.

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.

The sweetest of all sounds is that of the voice of the woman we love.

Two quite opposite qualities equally bias our minds – habits and novelty.

There are certain things in which mediocrity is not to be endured, such as poetry, music, painting, public speaking.

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.

All men’s misfortunes spring from their hatred of being alone.

We should laugh before being happy, for fear of dying without having laughed.

The regeneration of society is the regeneration of society by individual education.

Avoid lawsuits beyond all things; they pervert your conscience, impair your health, and dissipate your property.

The passion of hatred is so long lived and so obstinate a malady that the surest sign of death in a sick person is their desire for reconciliation.

Out of difficulties grow miracles.

A man of the world must seem to be what he wishes to be thought.

We can recognize the dawn and the decline of love by the uneasiness we feel when alone together.

A position of eminence makes a great person greater and a small person less.

All of our unhappiness comes from our inability to be alone.

Politeness makes one appear outwardly as they should be within.

One seeks to make the loved one entirely happy, or, if that cannot be, entirely wretched.

This great misfortune – to be incapable of solitude.

It is fortunate to be of high birth, but it is no less so to be of such character that people do not care to know whether you are or are not.

The wise person often shuns society for fear of being bored.

Time makes friendship stronger, but love weaker.