JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE QUOTES

French philosopher and moralist (1645-1696)

Jean de La Bruyère quote

A faithless woman, if known to be such by the person concerned, is but faithless ; if she is believed faithful, she is treacherous.

JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE

"Of Women", Les Caractères

Tags: adultery


Friendship can exist between persons of different sexes, without any coarse or sensual feelings; yet a woman always looks upon a man as a man, and so a man will look upon a woman as a woman.

JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE

"Of the Affections", Les Caractères

Tags: friendship


It is a fool's privilege to laugh at an intelligent man.

JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE

"Of Society and of Conversation", Les Caractères

Tags: fools


Nothing resembles today so much as tomorrow.

JEAN DE LA BRUYERE

attributed, Day's Collacon

Tags: tomorrow


Life is a tragedy for those who feel, and a comedy for those who think.

JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE

attributed, Selected Thoughts from the French: XV Century-XX Century, with English Translations

Tags: life


Outward simplicity befits ordinary men, like a garment made to measure for them; but it serves as an adornment to those who have filled their lives with great deeds: they might be compared to some beauty carelessly dressed and thereby all the more attractive.

JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE

"Of Personal Merit", Les Caractères

Tags: simplicity


Sudden love takes the longest time to be cured.

JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE

"Of the Affections", Les Caractères

Tags: love


Tyranny has no need of arts or sciences, for its policy, which is very shallow and without any refinement, only consists in shedding blood.

JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE

"Of the Sovereign and the State", Les Caractères

Tags: tyranny


If poverty is the mother of all crimes, lack of intelligence is their father.

JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE

"Of Mankind", Les Caractères

Tags: crime


In the world there are only two ways of raising one's self, either by one's own industry or by the weakness of others.

JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE

attributed, Forty Thousand Quotations

Tags: weakness


False modesty is the last refinement of vanity.

JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE

attributed, Day's Collacon

Tags: vanity


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

Tags: piety


Criticism is often not a science; it is a craft, requiring more good health than wit, more hard work than talent, more habit than native genius. In the hands of a man who has read widely but lacks judgment, applied to certain subjects it can corrupt both its readers and the writer himself.

JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE

"Of Works of the Mind", Les Caractères

Tags: criticism


It is no more in our power to love always than it was not to love at all.

JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE

"Of the Affections", Les Caractères


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 BRUYÈRE

"Of the Gifts of Fortune", Les Caractères

Tags: gambling


For a long time visits among lovers and professions of love are kept up through habit, after their behavior has plainly proved that love no longer exists.

JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE

"Of the Affections", Les Caractères

Tags: habit


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

JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE

Les Caractères ou les Moeurs de ce siecle

Tags: opera


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

Tags: passion


There is no excess in the world so commendable as excessive gratitude.

JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE

"Of the Affections", Les Caractères

Tags: gratitude


Nothing makes us better understand what trifling things Providence thinks He bestows on men in granting them wealth, money, dignities, and other advantages, than the manner in which they are distributed and the kind of men who have the largest share.

JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE

"Of the Gifts of Fortune", Les Caractères

Tags: Providence