Quotes by Jean de la Bruyère

Jean de la Bruyère

Jean de la Bruyère

French writer

Lived from: 1645 - 1696

Category: Writers (Contemporary) Country: FlagFrance

Born: 16 august 1645 Died: 10 may 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!
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • A vain man finds it wise to speak good or ill of himself; a modest man does not talk of himself.
  • You may drive a dog off the King's armchair, and it will climb into the preacher's pulpit; he views the world unmoved, unembarrassed, unabashed.
  • No man is so perfect, so necessary to his friends, as to give them no cause to miss him less.
  • Making a book is a craft, like making a clock; it needs more than native wit to be an author.
  • Children have neither a past nor a future. Thus they enjoy the present - which seldom happens to us.
  • There are only two ways of getting on in the world: by one's own industry, or by the stupidity of others.
  • One mark of a second-rate mind is to be always telling stories.
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  • A man can keep a secret better than his own. A woman her own better than others.
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  • 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.
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  • A heap of epithets is poor praise: the praise lies in the facts, and in the way of telling them.
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  • A man of the world must seem to be what he wishes to be thought.
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  • A person's worth in this world is estimated according to the value they put on themselves.
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  • A position of eminence makes a great person greater and a small person less.
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  • A slave has but one master. An ambition man, has as many as there are people who helped him get his fortune.
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  • A vain man finds it wise to speak good or ill of himself; a modest man does not talk of himself.
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  • All men's misfortunes spring from their hatred of being alone.
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  • All of our unhappiness comes from our inability to be alone.
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  • As favor and riches forsake a man, we discover in him the foolishness they concealed, and which no one perceived before.
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  • 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.
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  • At the beginning and at the end of love, the two lovers are embarrassed to find themselves alone.
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  • Avoid lawsuits beyond all things; they pervert your conscience, impair your health, and dissipate your property.
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  • Between good sense and good taste there lies the difference between a cause and its effect.
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  • Children enjoy the present because they have neither a past nor a future.
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  • Children have neither a past nor a future. Thus they enjoy the present - which seldom happens to us.
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  • Criticism is often not a science; it is a craft, requiring more good health than wit, more hard work than talent, more habit than native genius. In the hands of a man who has read widely but lacks judgment, applied to certain subjects it can corrupt both its readers and the writer himself.
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  • Everything has been said, and we have come too late, now that men have been living and thinking for seven thousand years and more.
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  • Generosity lies less in giving much than in giving at the right moment.
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Questions and Answers

What are the most famous quotes from Jean de la Bruyère?

The two most famous quotes from Jean de la Bruyère are:

  • "A man can keep a secret better than his own. A woman her own better than others."
  • "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."

When did Jean de la Bruyère live?

Jean de la Bruyère was born in 1645 and died in the year 1696.