JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE QUOTES IV

French philosopher and moralist (1645-1696)

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

Tags: mediocrity


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


Life is short and tedious, and is wholly spent in wishing; we trust to find rest and enjoyment at some future time, often at an age when our best blessings, youth and health, have already left us. When at last I that time has arrived, it surprises us in the midst of fresh desires; we have got no farther when we are attacked by a fever which kills us; if we had been cured, it would only have been to give us more time for other desires.

JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE

"Of Mankind", Les Caractères

Tags: desire


Love begins with love ; and the warmest friendship cannot change even to the coldest love.

JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE

"Of the Affections", Les Caractères

Tags: love


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


The same principle leads us to neglect a man of merit that induces us to admire a fool.

JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE

Les Caractères

Tags: merit


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


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


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

Tags: women


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


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

Tags: ambition


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

Tags: opinions


It is weakness which makes us hate an enemy and seek revenge, and it is idleness that pacifies us and causes us to neglect it.

JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE

"Of the Affections", Les Caractères

Tags: enemies


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

Tags: character


Two persons will not be friends long if they are not inclined to pardon each other's little failings.

JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE

"Of Society and of Conversation", Les Caractères

Tags: faults


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

Tags: death


A man of variable mind is not one man, but several men in one; he multiplies himself as often as he changes his taste and manners; he is not this minute what he was the last, and will not be the next what he is now; he is his own successor.

JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE

"Of Mankind", Les Caractères


If it be usual to be strongly impressed by things that are scarce, why are we so little impressed by virtue?

JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE

"Of Personal Merit", Les Caractères

Tags: virtue


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

Tags: ingratitude