Quotes By Jean De La Bruyere

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.