Top 160 Luc de Clapiers Quotes (2025 Update)
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51. “Most people grow old within a small circle of ideas, which they have not discovered for themselves. There are perhaps less wrong-minded people than thoughtless.”

— Luc de Clapiers

52. “The mind is the soul’s eye, not its source of power. That lies in the heart, in other words, in the passions.”

— Luc de Clapiers

53. “It is easy to criticize an author, but difficult to appreciate him.”

— Luc de Clapiers

54. “More are taken in by hope than by cunning.”

— Luc de Clapiers

55. “It is of no use to possess a lively wit if it is not of the right proportion: the perfection of a clock is not to go fast, but to be accurate.”

— Luc de Clapiers

56. “Consciousness of our powers augments them.”

— Luc de Clapiers

57. “The counsels of old age give light without heat, like the sun in winter.”

— Luc de Clapiers

58. “Vice foments war; it is virtue which actually fights. If there were no virtue, we would live in peace forever.”

— Luc de Clapiers

59. “Hatred is keener than friendship, less keen than love.”

— Luc de Clapiers

60. “You can purchase the mind of Pascal for a crown. Pleasures even cheaper are sold to those who give themselves up to them. It is only luxuries and objects of caprice that are rare and difficult to obtain; unfortunately they are the only things that touch the curiosity and taste of ordinary men.”

— Luc de Clapiers

61. “Some authors regard morality in the same light as we regard modern architecture. Convenience is the first thing to be looked for.”

— Luc de Clapiers

62. “The mind of man is more intuitive than logical, and comprehends more than it can coordinate.”

— Luc de Clapiers

63. “Great men are sometimes so even in small things.”

— Luc de Clapiers

64. “It is not in everyone’s power to secure wealth, office, or honors; but everyone may be good, generous, and wise.”

— Luc de Clapiers

65. “Nothing but courage can guide life.”

— Luc de Clapiers

66. “We are not greatly pleased that our friends should respect our good qualities if they venture to perceive our faults.”

— Luc de Clapiers

67. “To achieve great things we must live as though we were never going to die.”

— Luc de Clapiers

68. “The thought of death deceives us; for it causes us to neglect to live.”

— Luc de Clapiers

69. “We must expect everything and fear everything from time and from men.”

— Luc de Clapiers

70. “Faith is the consolation of the wretched and the terror of the happy.”

— Luc de Clapiers

71. “Prosperity makes few friends.”

— Luc de Clapiers

72. “Great men undertake great things because they are great; fools, because they think them easy.”

— Luc de Clapiers

73. “We are dismayed when we find that even disaster cannot cure us of our faults.”

— Luc de Clapiers

74. “Great men in teaching weak men to reflect have set them on the road to error.”

— Luc de Clapiers

75. “Truth is not so threadbare as speech, because fewer people can make use of it.”

— Luc de Clapiers

76. “There are men who are happy without knowing it.”

— Luc de Clapiers

77. “We must not be timid from a fear of committing faults: the greatest fault of all is to deprive oneself of experience.”

— Luc de Clapiers

78. “We are so presumptuous that we think we can separate our personal interest from that of humanity, and slander mankind without compromising ourselves.”

— Luc de Clapiers

79. “Hope animates the wise, and lures the presumptuous and indolent who repose inconsiderately on her promises.”

— Luc de Clapiers

80. “The fool is like those people who think themselves rich with little.”

— Luc de Clapiers

81. “Men sometimes feel injured by praise because it assigns a limit to their merit; few people are modest enough not to take offense that one appreciates them.”

— Luc de Clapiers

82. “The tempests of youth are mingled with days of brilliant sunshine.”

— Luc de Clapiers

83. “The shortness of life cannot dissuade us from its pleasures, nor console us for its pains.”

— Luc de Clapiers

84. “The greatest evil that fortune can bring to men is to endow them with feeble resources and yet to make them ambitious.”

— Luc de Clapiers

85. “We can love with all our hearts those in whom we recognize great faults. It would be impertinent to believe that perfection alone has the right to please us; sometimes our weaknesses attach us to each other as much as our virtues.”

— Luc de Clapiers

86. “We have neither the strength nor the opportunity to accomplish all the good and all the evil which we design.”

— Luc de Clapiers

87. “It is proof of a narrow mind when things worthy of esteem are distinguished from things worthy of love. Great minds naturally love whatever is worthy of their esteem.”

— Luc de Clapiers

88. “Man never rises to great truths without enthusiasm.”

— Luc de Clapiers

89. “Peace renders nations happier and men weaker.”

— Luc de Clapiers

90. “Magnanimity will not consider the prudence of its motives.”

— Luc de Clapiers

91. “Excessive distrust is not less hurtfJul than its opposite. Most men become useless to him who is unwilling to risk being deceived.”

— Luc de Clapiers

92. “Hatred and dishonesty generally arises from fear of being deceived.”

— Luc de Clapiers

93. “None are more liable to mistakes than those who act only on second thoughts.”

— Luc de Clapiers

94. “Everyone is born sincere and dies deceivers.”

— Luc de Clapiers

95. “A man who love only himself and his pleasures is vain, presumptuous, and wicked even from principle.”

— Luc de Clapiers

96. “Vice stirs up war, virtue fights.”

— Luc de Clapiers

97. “It is easier to say new things than to reconcile those which have already been said.”

— Luc de Clapiers

98. “If anyone accuses me of contradicting myself, I shall reply; I have been wrong once or more often, however I do not aspire to be always wrong.”

— Luc de Clapiers

99. “Jealousy is the paralysis of love.”

— Luc de Clapiers

100. “We are very wrong to think that some fault or other can exclude virtue, or to consider the alliance of good and evil as a monstrosity or an enigma.”

— Luc de Clapiers