Top 40 Jean de la Bruyere Quotes

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

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

One seeks to make the loved one entirely happy, or, if that cannot be, entirely wretched.

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

A man can keep another‘s secret better than his own. A woman her own better than others.

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

One mark of a second-rate mind is to be always telling stories.

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

We can recognize the dawn and the decline of love by the uneasiness we feel when alone together.

Between good sense and good taste there lies the difference between a cause and its effect.

Marriage, it seems, confines every man to his proper rank.

Even the best intentioned of great men need a few scoundrels around them; there are some things you cannot ask an honest man to do.

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.

Two persons cannot long be friends if they cannot forgive each other’s little failings.

The very impossibility in which I find myself to prove that God is not, discovers to me his existence.

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.

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.

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

It is a sad thing when men have neither the wit to speak well nor the judgment to hold their tongues.

Avoid lawsuits beyond all things; they pervert your conscience, impair your health, and dissipate your property.

Children enjoy the present because they have neither a past nor a future.

Man has but three events in his life: to be born, to live, and to die. He is not conscious of his birth, he suffers at his death and he forgets to live.

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

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

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

The court is like a palace of marble; it’s composed of people very hard and very polished.

This great misfortune – to be incapable of solitude.

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

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.

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.

We should keep silent about those in power; to speak well of them almost implies flattery; to speak ill of them while they are alive is dangerous, and when they are dead is cowardly.

Love and friendship exclude each other.

He who tip-toes cannot stand; he who strides cannot walk.

There is no road too long to the man who advances deliberately and without undue haste; there are no honors too distant to the man who prepares himself for them with patience.

Children have neither a past nor a future. Thus they enjoy the present, which seldom happens to us.

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

Liberality consists less in giving a great deal than in gifts well-timed.

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.

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

The passion of hatred is so long lived and so obstinate a malady that the surest sign of death in a sick person is their desire for reconciliation.