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It is a sad thing when men have neither enough intelligence to speak well nor enough sense to hold their tongues this is the root of all impertinence.

Jean de la Bruyere

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Jean de la Bruyere
Age: 50 †
Born: 1645
Born: August 16
Died: 1696
Died: May 10
Aphorist
Essayist
French Moralist
Lawyer
Philosopher
Translator
Writer
Paris
France
Jean de La Bruyere
Well
Tongue
Enough
Intelligence
Thing
Neither
Men
Judgment
Hold
Impertinence
Speak
Tongues
Sense
Wit
Wells
Root

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It takes talent to please the people in a sermon by a flowery style, a cheerful ethic, brilliant sallies and lively descriptions but such a talent is inadequate. A better sort of talent neglects these extraneous ornaments, unworthy to be used in the service of the Gospel: such a preacher's sermon will be simple, strong and Christian.
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There is a pleasure in meeting the glance of a person whom we have lately laid under some obligations.
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Nothing is easier for passion than to overcome reason, but the greatest triumph is to conquer a man's own interests.
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There are but three events which concern man: birth, life and death. They are unconscious of their birth, they suffer when they die, and they neglect to live.
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One faithful Friend is enough for a man's self, 'tis much to meet with such an one, yet we can't have too many for the sake of others.
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Languages are the keys of science.
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Men regret their life has been ill-spent, but this does not always induce them to make a better use of the time they have yet to live.
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The beginning and the end of love are both marked by embarrassment when the two find themselves alone. [Fr., Le commencement et le declin de l'amour se font sentir par l'embarras ou l'on est de se trouver seuls.]
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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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One seeks to make the loved one entirely happy, or, if that cannot be, entirely wretched.
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Love seizes us suddenly, without giving warning, and our disposition or our weakness favors the surprise one look, one glance, from the fair fixes and determines us.
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The events we most desire do not happen or, if they do, it is neither in the time nor in the circumstances when they would have given us extreme pleasure.
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If women were by nature what they make themselves by art if they were to lose suddenly all the freshness of their complexion, and their faces to become as fiery and as leaden as they make them with the red and the paint they besmear themselves with, they would consider themselves the most wretched creatures on earth.
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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
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He who will not listen to any advice, nor be corrected in his writings, is a rank pedant.
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The very impossibility in which I find myself to prove that God is not, discloses to me His existence. [Fr., L'impossibilite ou je suis de prouver que Dieu n'est pas, me decouvre son existence.]
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If a secret is revealed, the person who has confided it to another is to be blamed.
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Party loyalty lowers the greatest men to the petty level of the masses.
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Grief that is dazed and speechless is out of fashion: the modern woman mourns her husband loudly and tells you the whole story of his death, which distresses her so much that she forgets not the slightest detail about it.
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Next to sound judgment, diamonds and pearls are the rarest things in the world.
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