French philosopher and moralist (1645-1696)
The true spirit of conversation consists more in bringing out the cleverness of others than in showing a great deal of it yourself.
JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE
"Of Society and of Conversation", Les Caractères
I am not astonished that men who lean, as it were, on an atom, should stumble at the smallest efforts they make for discovering the truth ; that, being so short-sighted, they do not reach beyond the heavens and the stars, to contemplate God Himself.
JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE
"Of Freethinkers", Les Caractères
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 BRUYÈRE
"Of Personal Merit", Les Caractères
How many men are like trees, already strong and full grown, which are transplanted into some gardens, to the astonishment of those people who behold them in these fine spots, where they never saw them grow, and who neither know their beginning nor their progress!
JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE
"Of the Gifts of Fortune", Les Caractères
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 BRUYÈRE
"Of Works of the Mind", Les Caractères
There is nothing men are so anxious to keep, and yet are so careless about, as life.
JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE
"Of Mankind", Les Caractères
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 pleasure of criticism takes away from us the pleasure of being deeply moved by very fine things.
JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE
"Of Works of the Mind", Les Caractères
A man in health questions whether there is a God, and he also doubts whether it be a sin to have intercourse with a woman, who is at liberty to refuse ; but when he falls ill, or when his mistress is with child, she is discarded, and he believes in God.
JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE
"Of Freethinkers", 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
A man who has schemed for some time can no longer do without it; all other ways of living are to him dull and insipid.
JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE
"Of the Court", Les Caractères
A wise man is cured of ambition by ambition itself; his aim is so exalted that riches, office, fortune, and favor cannot satisfy him.
JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE
"Of Personal Merit", Les Caractères
Death happens but once, yet we feel it every moment of our lives; it is worse to dread it than to suffer it.
JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE
"Of Mankind", Les Caractères
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
It is often easier as well as more advantageous to conform ourselves to other men's opinions than to bring them over to ours.
JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE
"Of Society and of Conversation", Les Caractères
Love begins with love ; and the warmest friendship cannot change even to the coldest love.
JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE
"Of the Affections", Les Caractères
The fear of old age disturbs us, yet we are not certain of becoming old.
JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE
"Of Mankind", Les Caractères
The same principle leads us to neglect a man of merit that induces us to admire a fool.
JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE
Les Caractères
There are few wives so perfect as not to give their husbands at least once a day good reason to repent of ever having married, or at least of envying those who are unmarried.
JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE
"Of Women", 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