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Make me chaste and To what excesses will men not go for the sake of a religion in which they believe so little and which they practice so imperfectly!

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
Make
Excess
Men
God
Sake
Practice
Religion
Littles
Imperfectly
Little
Excesses
Believe
Chaste

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To give awkwardly is churlishness. The most difficult part is to give, then why not add a smile?
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He who only writes to suit the taste of the age, considers himself more than his writings. We should always aim at perfection, and then posterity will do us that justice which sometimes our contemporaries refuse us.
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A man without characteristics is a most insipid character.
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Life is a kind of sleep: old men sleep longest, nor begin to wake but when they are to die.
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We must strive to make ourselves really worthy of some employment. We need pay no attention to anything else the rest is the business of others.
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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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A man can keep another's secret better than his own. A woman her own better than others.
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Love has this in common with scruples, that it becomes embittered by the reflections and the thoughts that beset us to free ourselves.
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The opposite of what is noised about concerning men and things is often the truth. [Fr., Le contraire des bruits qui courent des affaires ou des personnes est souvent la verite.]
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People reveal their character even in the simplest things they do. Fools do not enter a room, nor leave it, nor sit down, nor rise, nor are they silent, nor do they stand up, like people of sense and understanding.
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Children are overbearing, supercilious, passionate, envious, inquisitive, egotistical, idle, fickle, timid, intemperate, liars, and dissemblers they laugh and weep easily, are excessive in their joys and sorrows, and that about the most trifling objects they bear no pain, but like to inflict it on others already they are men.
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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.
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Children have neither past nor future and that which seldom happens to us, they rejoice in the present. [Fr., Les enfants n'ont ni passe ni avenir et, ce qui ne nous arrive guere, ils jouissent du present.]
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Rarely do they appear great before their valets.
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For a woman to be at once a coquette and a bigot is more than the humblest of husbands can bear she should mercifully choose between the two.
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It seems to me that the spirit of politeness is a certain attention in causing that, by our words and by our manners, others may be content with us and with themselves.
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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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A pious man is one who would be an atheist if the king were.
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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.
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Laziness begat wearisomeness, and this put men in quest of diversions, play and company, on which however it is a constant attendant he who works hard, has enough to do with himself otherwise.
Jean de la Bruyere