Jean De La Bruyere Inspiring Quotes

Jean De La Bruyere Inspiring Quotes

“We are afraid of the old age which we may never attain.”

“The pleasure of criticism takes away from us the pleasure of being deeply moved by very fine things.”

“Not to be able to bear with all bad-tempered people with whom the world is crowded, shows that a man has not a good temper himself.”

“If it is true that one is poor on account of all the things one wants, the ambitious and the avaricious languish in extreme poverty.”

“Time, which strengthens friendship, weakens love.”

“Generosity lies less in giving much than in giving at the right moment.”

“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”

“The true spirit of conversation consists more in bringing out the cleverness of others than in showing a great deal of it yourself; he who goes away pleased with himself and his own wit is also greatly pleased with you. Most men would rather please than admire you; they seek less to be instructed, and even to be amused, than to be praised and applauded.”

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

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

“A wise man is cured of ambition by ambition itself; his aim is so exalted that riches, office, fortune, and favor cannot satisfy him.”

“The very essence of politeness is to take care that by our words and actions we make other people pleased with us as well as with themselves.”

“If poverty is the mother of all crimes, lack of intelligence is their father.”

“The same principle leads us to neglect a man of merit that induces us to admire a fool.”

“If some persons died and others did not die death would indeed be a terrible affliction.”

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

“Out of difficulties, grow miracles”

“Most men make use of the first part of their life to render the last part miserable.”

“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. ”

Sudden love takes the longest time to be cured.”

“The most exquisite pleasure is giving pleasure to others.”

“We keep a special place in our hearts for people who refuse to be impressed by us.”

“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.”

“Such a great misfortune, not to be able to be alone.”

“The pleasure of criticizing takes away from us the pleasure of being moved by some very fine things.”

“Life is a tragedy for those who feel, and a comedy for those who think.”

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

“Those who make the worst use of their time are the first to complain of its brevity.”

“Some people, after having read a book, quote certain passages which they do not thoroughly understand, and moreover completely change their character by what they put in of their own. Those passages, so mutilated and disfigured that they are nothing else but their own expressions and thoughts, they expose to censure, maintain them to be bad, and the world agrees with them; but the passage such critics think they quote, and in reality do not, is not a bit the worse for it.”

“Men are willing to be slaves in one place if they can only lord it in another.”

“The people in Paris commonly ape the court, but they do not always know how to imitate it; they by no means resemble it in those agreeable and flattering outward civilities with which some courtiers, and particularly the ladies, affably treat a man of merit, who possesses nothing but merit.”

“We can recognize the dawn and the decline of love by the uneasiness we feel when alone together.
Out of difficulties grow miracles.
The sweetest of all sounds is that of the voice of the woman we love.
Those who make the worst use of their time are the first to complain of its shortness.
Two persons cannot long be friends if they cannot forgive each other’s little failings.
All of our unhappiness comes from our inability to be alone.
Children have neither a past nor a future. Thus they enjoy the present, which seldom happens to us.
We perceive when love begins and when it declines by our embarrassment when alone together.
We must laugh before we are happy, for fear we die before we laugh at all.
At the beginning and at the end of love, the two lovers are embarrassed to find themselves alone”

“Many people perceive the merit of a manuscript which is read to them, but will not declare themselves in its favour until they see what success it has in the world when printed, or what intelligent men will say about it. They do not like to risk their opinion, and they want to be carried away by the crowd, and dragged along by the multitude. Then they say that they were amongst the first who approved of that work, and the general public shares their opinion. 32
Such men lose the best opportunities of convincing us that they are intelligent, clever, and first-rate critics, and can really discover what is good and what is better. A fine work falls into their hands; it is an author’s first book, before he has got any great name; there is nothing to prepossess any one in his favour, and by applauding his writings one does not court or flatter the great. Zelotes, you are not required to cry out: “This is a masterpiece; human intelligence never went farther; the human speech cannot soar higher; henceforward we will judge of no one’s taste but by what he thinks of this book.” Such exaggerated and offensive expressions are only employed by postulants for pensions or benefices, and are even injurious to what is really commendable and what one wishes to praise. Why not merely say—“That’s a good book?” It is true you say it when the whole of France has approved of it, and foreigners as well as your own countrymen, when it is printed all over Europe, and has been translated into several languages, but then it is too late.”

“As favour and riches forsake a man, we discover in him the foolishness they concealed, and which no one perceived before.”

“All of our unhappiness comes from our inability to be alone.”

“A fool is an automaton, a machine with springs which turn him about always in one manner, and preserve his equilibrium. He is ever the same, and never changes. If you have seen him once you have seen him at every moment and period of his life. He is at best but as the lowing ox or the whistling blackbird. He is fixed and obstinate, I may say, by nature. What appears least in him is his soul; that has neither activity nor energy; it reposes.”

“We should only endeavor to think and speak correctly ourselves, without wishing to bring others over to our taste and opinions; this would be too great an undertaking.”

“The same common-sense which makes an author write good things, makes him dread they are not good enough to deserve reading.”

“As favor and riches forsake a man, we discover in him the foolishness they concealed, and which no one perceived before.”

“The great charm of conversation consists less in the display of one’s own wit and intelligence, than in the power to draw forth the resources of others; he who leaves you after a long conversation, pleased with himself and the part he has taken in the discourse, will be your warmest admirer. Men do not care to admire you, they wish you to be pleased with them; they do not seek for instruction or even amusement from your discourse, but they do wish you to be made acquainted with their talents and powers of conversation; and the true man of genius will delicately make all who come in contact with him feel the exquisite satisfaction of knowing that they have appeared to advantage.”

“No vice exists which does not pretend to be more or less like some virtue, and which docs not take advantage of this assumed resemblance.”

There is, however, nothing wanting to the idleness of a philosopher but a better name, and that meditation, conversation, and reading should be called “work”.”

“A person’s worth in this world is estimated according to the value they put on themselves.”

“To laugh at men of sense is the privilege of fools.”

“That we seldom repent of talking too little and very often of talking too much is a … maxim that everybody knows and nobody practices”

“Everything has been said, and we are more than seven thousand years of human thought too late.”

“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.”

“A man is rich whose income is larger than his expenses, and he is poor if his expenses are greater than his income.”

“Grief at the absence of a loved one is happiness compared to life with a person one hates.”

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