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A man must have very eminent qualities to hold his own without being polite.
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
Hold
Quality
Without
Must
Men
Eminent
Rudeness
Polite
Qualities
More quotes by Jean de la Bruyere
To express truth is to write naturally, forcibly, and delicately.
Jean de la Bruyere
Wit is the god of moments, but Genius is the god of ages.
Jean de la Bruyere
Criticism is as often a trade as a science, requiring, as it does, more health than wit, more labour than capacity, more practice than genius.
Jean de la Bruyere
During the course of our life we now and then enjoy some pleasures so inviting, and have some encounters of so tender a nature, that though they are forbidden, it is but natural to wish that they were at least allowable. Nothing can be more delightful, except it be to abandon them for virtue's sake.
Jean de la Bruyere
Cunning is none of the best nor worst qualities it floats between virtue and vice there is scarce any exigence where it may not, and perhaps ought not to be supplied by prudence.
Jean de la Bruyere
It is boorish to live ungraciously: the giving is the hardest part what does it cost to add a smile?
Jean de la Bruyere
It would be a kind of ferocity to reject indifferently all sorts of praise. One should be glad to have that which comes from good men who praise in sincerity things that are really praiseworthy.
Jean de la Bruyere
A man is rich whose income is larger than his expenses, and he is poor if his expenses are greater than his income.
Jean de la Bruyere
A man who is free and unmarried, if he has some intelligence, can rise above his fortune, mingle in society and meet the best people on an equal footing. This is harder for a married man: marriage, it seems, confines every man to his proper rank.
Jean de la Bruyere
Manners carry the world for the moment, character for all time.
Jean de la Bruyere
We are valued in this world at the rate we desire to be valued.
Jean de la Bruyere
If poverty is the mother of all crimes, lack of intelligence is the father.
Jean de la Bruyere
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 Bruyere
A pious man is one who would be an atheist if the king were.
Jean de la Bruyere
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 Bruyere
The slave has but one master, the ambitious man has as many as there are persons whose aid may contribute to the advancement of his fortunes.
Jean de la Bruyere
Everything has been said, and we have come too late, now that men have been living and thinking for seven thousand years and more.
Jean de la Bruyere
There is not in the world so toilsome a trade as the pursuit of fame life concludes before you have so much as sketched your work.
Jean de la Bruyere
Rarely do they appear great before their valets. [Fr., Rarement ils sont grands vis-a-vis de leur valets-de-chambre.]
Jean de la Bruyere
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.]
Jean de la Bruyere
