Jean de la Bruyere famous quotes

There is a false modesty, which is vanity; a false glory, which is levity; a false grandeur, which is meanness; a false virtue, which is hypocrisy, and a false wisdom, which is prudery.
-- Jean de la Bruyere

#Vanity #Hypocrisy #Modesty

Let us not envy some men their accumulated riches; their burden would be too heavy for us; we could not sacrifice, as they do, health, quiet, honor and conscience, to obtain them: It is to pay so dear from them that the bargain is a loss.
-- Jean de la Bruyere

#Loss #Sacrifice #Men

He who can wait for what he desires takes the course not to be exceedingly grieved if he fails of it; he, on the contrary, who labors after a thing too impatiently thinks the success when it comes is not a recompense equal to all the pains he has been at about it.
-- Jean de la Bruyere

#Pain #Failure #Thinking

If this life is unhappy, it is a burden to us, which it is difficult to bear; if it is in every respect happy, it is dreadful to be deprived of it; so that in either case the result is the same, for we must exist in anxiety and apprehension.
-- Jean de la Bruyere

#Life #Anxiety #Unhappy

Nothing keeps longer than a middling fortune, and nothing melts away sooner than a large one.
-- Jean de la Bruyere

#Wealth #Fortune

False modesty is the masterpiece of vanity: showing the vain man in such an illusory light that he appears in the reputation of the virtue quite opposite to the vice which constitutes his real character; it is a deceit.
-- Jean de la Bruyere

#Real #Character #Men

When we have run through all forms of government, without partiality to that we were born under, we are at a loss with which to side; they are all a compound of good and evil. It is therefore most reasonable and safe to value that of our own country above all others, and to submit to it.
-- Jean de la Bruyere

#Running #Country #Loss

The sweetest of all sounds is that of the voice of the woman we love.
-- Jean de la Bruyere

#Love #Voice #Romance

Out of difficulties grow miracles.
-- Jean de la Bruyere

#Inspirational #Hope #Adversity

The sublime only paints the true, and that too in noble objects; it paints it in all its phases, its cause and its effect; it is the most worthy expression or image of this truth. Ordinary minds cannot find out the exact expression, and use synonymes.
-- Jean de la Bruyere

#Expression #Sublime #Mind

A person's worth in this world is estimated according to the value he puts on himself.
-- Jean de la Bruyere

#Inspirational #World #Persons

No road is to long for him who advances slowly and does not hurry and no attainment is beyond his reach who equips himself with patience to achieve it
-- Jean de la Bruyere

#Inspirational #Long #Goal

There are only three events in a man's life; birth, life, and death; he is not conscious of being born, he dies in pain, and he forgets to live.
-- Jean de la Bruyere

#Life #Pain #Men

Children have neither past nor future; they enjoy the present, which very few of us do.
-- Jean de la Bruyere

#Time #Children #Future

We must laugh before we are happy, for fear we die before we laugh at all.
-- Jean de la Bruyere

#Love #Dream #Laughing

If poverty is the mother of all crimes, lack of intelligence is the father.
-- Jean de la Bruyere

#Mother #Father #Stupidity

Two persons cannot long be friends if they cannot forgive each other's little failings.
-- Jean de la Bruyere

#Friendship #Forgiveness #Two

At the beginning and at the end of love, the two lovers are embarrassed to find themselves alone.
-- Jean de la Bruyere

#Love #Life #Dream

All of our unhappiness comes from our inability to be alone.
-- Jean de la Bruyere

#Being Alone #Being Sad #Inability

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.
-- Jean de la Bruyere

#World #Fame #Pursuit

Grief at the absence of a loved one is happiness compared to life with a person one hates.
-- Jean de la Bruyere

#Life #Hate #Grief

All men's misfortunes spring from their hatred of being alone.
-- Jean de la Bruyere

#Spring #Loneliness #Men

There are some who speak one moment before they think
-- Jean de la Bruyere

#Thinking #Speak #Moments

Misers are neither relations, nor friends, nor citizens, nor Christians, nor perhaps even human beings.
-- Jean de la Bruyere

#Christian #Citizens #Wealth

Every man is valued in this world as he shows by his conduct that he wishes to be valued.
-- Jean de la Bruyere

#Appreciation #Men #Wish

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 Bruyere

#Men #Hands #Perfect

Discourtesy does not spring merely from one bad quality, but from several--from foolish vanity, from ignorance of what is due to others, from indolence, from stupidity, from distraction of thought, from contempt of others, from jealousy.
-- Jean de la Bruyere

#Spring #Ignorance #Vanity

As long as men are liable to die and are desirous to live, a physician will be made fun of, but he will be well paid.
-- Jean de la Bruyere

#Fun #Men #Long

The exact contrary of what is generally believed is often the truth.
-- Jean de la Bruyere

#Truth #Honesty

The most exquisite pleasure is giving pleasure to others.
-- Jean de la Bruyere

#Giving #Pleasure #Exquisite

The first day one is a guest, the second a burden, and the third a pest.
-- Jean de la Bruyere

#Friendship #Firsts #Pests

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 Bruyere

#Speech #Mediocrity #Painting

Generosity lies less in giving much than in giving at the right moment.
-- Jean de la Bruyere

#Lying #Generosity #Giving

The pleasure we feel in criticizing robs us from being moved by very beautiful things.
-- Jean de la Bruyere

#Beautiful #Criticism #Pleasure

A pious man is one who would be an atheist if the king were.
-- Jean de la Bruyere

#Atheist #Kings #Men

Avoid lawsuits beyond all things; they pervert your conscience, impair your health, and dissipate your property.
-- Jean de la Bruyere

#Property #Conscience

It's motive alone which gives character to the actions of men.
-- Jean de la Bruyere

#Character #Men #Giving

It would be a kind of ferocity to reject indifferently all sorts of praise. One should be glad to have that which comes from good men who praise in sincerity things that are really praiseworthy.
-- Jean de la Bruyere

#Men #Good Man #Would Be

Genius and great abilities are often wanting; sometimes, only opportunities. Some deserve praise for what they have done; others for what they would have done.
-- Jean de la Bruyere

#Opportunity #Genius #Done

Discretion is the perfection of reason, and a guide to us in all the duties of life. It is only found in men of sound sense and understanding.
-- Jean de la Bruyere

#Men #Perfection #Understanding