Top 300 Jean de La Bruyère Quotes (2024 Update)
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151. “We seldom repent of speaking little, very often of speaking too much: a vulgar and trite maxim, which all the world knows and, but which all the world does not practice.”

— Jean de La Bruyère

152. “A long disease seems to be a halting place between life and death, that death itself may be a comfort to those who die and to those who are left behind.”

— Jean de La Bruyère

153. “A man often runs the risk of throwing away a witticism if he admits that it is his own.”

— Jean de La Bruyère

154. “Praise, of all things, is the most powerful excitement to commendable actions, and animates us in our enterprises.”

— Jean de La Bruyère

155. “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 Bruyère

156. “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 Bruyère

157. “Party loyalty lowers the greatest men to the petty level of the masses.”

— Jean de La Bruyère

158. “If you suppress the exorbitant love of pleasure and money, idle curiosity, iniquitous pursuits and wanton mirth, what a stillness would there be in the greatest cities.”

— Jean de La Bruyère

159. “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

160. “To forget someone means to think of him.”

— Jean de La Bruyère

161. “It is in vain to ridicule a rich fool, for the laughers will be on his side.”

— Jean de La Bruyère

162. “Widows, like ripe fruit, drop easily from their perch.”

— Jean de La Bruyère

163. “When what you read elevates your mind and fills you with noble aspirations, look for no other rule by which to judge a book; it is good, and is the work of a master-hand.”

— Jean de La Bruyère

164. “Impertinent wits are a kind of insect which are in everybody’s way and plentiful in all countries.”

— Jean de La Bruyère

165. “Nothing more clearly shows how little God esteems his gift to men of wealth, money, position and other worldly goods, than the way he distributes these, and the sort of men who are most amply provided with them.”

— Jean de La Bruyère

166. “To make a book is as much a trade as to make a clock; something more than intelligence is required to become an author.”

— Jean de La Bruyère

167. “It is difficult for a proud man ever to forgive a person who has found him at fault, and who has good grounds for complaining of him; his pride is not assuaged till he has regained the advantages he lost and put the other person in the wrong.”

— Jean de La Bruyère

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

— Jean de La Bruyère

169. “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

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

— Jean de La Bruyère

171. “Piety with some people, but especially with women, is either a passion, or an infirmity of age, or a fashion which must be followed.”

— Jean de La Bruyère

172. “When life is unhappy it is hard to endure, when it is happy it is terrible to think of it ending. Both amount to the same thing in the end.”

— Jean de La Bruyère

173. “The most accomplished literary work would be reduced to nothing by carping criticism, if the author would listen to all critics and allow every one to erase the passage which pleases him the least.”

— Jean de La Bruyère

174. “Cheats easily believe others as bad as themselves; there is no deceiving them, nor do they long deceive.”

— Jean de La Bruyère

175. “Amongst such as out of cunning hear all and talk little, be sure to talk less; or if you must talk, say little.”

— Jean de La Bruyère

176. “It is a proof of boorishness to confer a favor with a bad grace; it is the act of giving that is hard and painful. How little does a smile cost?”

— Jean de La Bruyère

177. “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.”

— Jean de La Bruyère

178. “Politeness makes one appear outwardly as they should be within.”

— Jean de La Bruyère

179. “The best way to get on in the world is to make people believe it’s to their advantage to help you.”

— Jean de La Bruyère

180. “The fool only is troublesome. A plan of sense perceives when he is agreeable or tiresome; he disappears the very minute before he would have been thought to have stayed too long.”

— Jean de La Bruyère

181. “Extremes are vicious, and proceed from men; compensation is just, and proceeds from God.”

— Jean de La Bruyère

182. “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 Bruyère

183. “In Friendship we only see those faults which may be prejudicial to our friends. In love we see no faults but those by which we suffer ourselves.”

— Jean de La Bruyère

184. “Politeness does not always inspire goodness, equity, complaisance, and gratitude; it gives at least the appearance of these qualities, and makes man appear outwardly, as he should be within.”

— Jean de La Bruyère

185. “The same amount of pride which makes a man treat haughtily his inferiors, makes him cringe servilely; to those above him.”

— Jean de La Bruyère

186. “It is no more in our power to love always than it was not to love at all.”

— Jean de La Bruyère

187. “We meet With few utterly dull and stupid souls: the sublime and transcendent are still fewer; the generality of mankind stand between these two extremes: the interval is filled with multitudes of ordinary geniuses, but all very useful, and the ornaments and supports of the commonwealth.”

— Jean de La Bruyère

188. “There are some extraordinary fathers, who seem, during the whole course of their lives, to be giving their children reasons for being consoled at their death.”

— Jean de La Bruyère

189. “We should like those whom we love to receive all their happiness, or, if this were impossible, all their unhappiness from our hands.”

— Jean de La Bruyère

190. “The noblest deeds are well enough set forth in simple language; emphasis spoils them.”

— Jean de La Bruyère

191. “It is not so easy to obtain a reputation by a perfect work as to enhance the value of an indifferent one by a reputation already acquired.”

— Jean de La Bruyère

192. “Lofty posts make great men greater still, and small men much smaller.”

— Jean de La Bruyère

193. “A judge’s duty is to grant justice, but his practice is to delay it: even those judges who know their duty adhere to the general practice.”

— Jean de La Bruyère

194. “Profound ignorance makes a man dogmatical.”

— Jean de La Bruyère

195. “In art them is a point of perfection, as of goodness or maturity in nature; he who is able to perceive it, and who loves it, has perfect taste; he who does not feel it, or loves on this side or that, has an imperfect taste.”

— Jean de La Bruyère

196. “What the people call eloquence is the facility some persons have of speaking alone and for a long time, aided by extravagant gestures, a loud voice, and powerful lungs.”

— Jean de La Bruyère

197. “Born merely for the purpose of digestion.”

— Jean de La Bruyère

198. “A man starts upon a sudden, takes Pen, Ink, and Paper, and without ever having had a thought of it before, resolves within himself he will write a Book; he has no Talent at Writing, but he wants fifty Guineas.”

— Jean de La Bruyère

199. “The News-writer lies down at Night in great Tranquillity, upon a piece of News which corrupts before Morning, and which he is obliged to throw away as soon as he awakes.”

— Jean de La Bruyère

200. “The nearer we come to great men the more clearly we see that they are only men. They rarely seem great to their valets.”

— Jean de La Bruyère