JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE QUOTES IV

French philosopher and moralist (1645-1696)


Notice: Undefined variable: id in /hermes/walnacweb03/walnacweb03ak/b2149/pow.notablequote/htdocs/l/includes/quoter.php on line 25

The critics, or those who, thinking themselves so, decide deliberately and decisively about all public representations, group and divide themselves into different parties, each of whom admires a certain poem or a certain music and damns all others, urged on by a wholly different motive than public interest or justice. The ardour with which they defend their prejudices damages the opposite party as well as their own set. These men discourage poets and musicians by a thousand contradictions, and delay the progress of arts and sciences, by depriving them of the advantages to be obtained by that emulation and freedom which many excellent masters, each in their own way and according to their own genius, might display in the execution of some very fine works.

JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE
Notice: Undefined variable: id in /hermes/walnacweb03/walnacweb03ak/b2149/pow.notablequote/htdocs/l/includes/quoter.php on line 35

"Of Works of the Mind", Les Caractères


Notice: Undefined variable: id in /hermes/walnacweb03/walnacweb03ak/b2149/pow.notablequote/htdocs/l/includes/quoter.php on line 61

Tags: criticism


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


The shortest and best way of making your fortune is to let people clearly see that it is their interest to promote yours.

JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE

"Of the Gifts of Fortune", Les Caractères


There are some sordid minds, formed of slime and filth, to whom interest and gain are what glory and virtue are to superior souls; they feel no other pleasure but to acquire money.

JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE

Les Caractères

Tags: greed


Nothing resembles today so much as tomorrow.

JEAN DE LA BRUYERE

attributed, Day's Collacon

Tags: tomorrow


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


We never love with all our heart and all our soul but once, and that is the first time.

JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE

"Of the Affections", Les Caractères

Tags: love


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

JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE

"Of Mankind", Les Caractères

Tags: crime


It is the glory and the merit of some men to write well, and of others not to write at all.

JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE

"Of Works of the Mind", Les Caractères

Tags: writing


Women are at little trouble to express what they do not feel; but men are still at less to express what they do feel.

JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE

"Of Women", Les Caractères


There are certain people who so ardently and so passionately desire a thing, that from dread of losing it they leave nothing undone to make them lose it.

JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE

"Of the Affections", Les Caractères


We confide our secret to a friend, but in love it escapes us.

JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE

"Of the Affections", Les Caractères


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


The fear of old age disturbs us, yet we are not certain of becoming old.

JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE

"Of Mankind", Les Caractères

Tags: old age


We come too late to say anything which has not been said already.

JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE

"Of Works of the Mind", Les Caractères

Tags: originality


No vice exists which does not pretend to be more or less like some virtue, and which does not take advantage of this assumed resemblance.

JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE

"Of the Affections", Les Caractères

Tags: vice


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


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

JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE

"Of Works of the Mind", Les Caractères

Tags: books


All the worth of some people lies in their name; upon a closer inspection it dwindles to nothing, but from a distance it deceives us.

JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE

"Of Personal Merit", Les Caractères