Quotes By 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.

Time makes friendship stronger, but love weaker.

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

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

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

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

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.

This great misfortune - to be incapable of solitude.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

Politeness makes one appear outwardly as they should be within.

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