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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
Polite
Qualities
Hold
Quality
Without
Must
Men
Eminent
Rudeness
More quotes by Jean de la Bruyere
A simple garb is the proper costume of the vulgar it is cut for them, and exactly suits their measure, but it is an ornament for those who have filled up their lives with great deeds. I liken them to beauty in dishabille, but more bewitching on that account.
Jean de la Bruyere
Misers are neither relations, nor friends, nor citizens, nor Christians, nor perhaps even human beings.
Jean de la Bruyere
The pleasure we feel in criticizing robs us from being moved by very beautiful things.
Jean de la Bruyere
We dread old age, which are not sure of being able to attain. [Fr., L'on craint la vieillesse, que l'on n'est pas sur de pouvoir atteindre.]
Jean de la Bruyere
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.
Jean de la Bruyere
Eloquence may be found in conversations and in all kinds of writings it is rarely found when looked for, and sometimes discovered where it is least expected.
Jean de la Bruyere
A prince wants only the pleasure of private life to complete his happiness.
Jean de la Bruyere
It is not so easy to obtain a reputation by a perfect work as to enhance the value of an indifferent one by a reputation already acquired.
Jean de la Bruyere
We should laugh before being happy, for fear of dying without having laughed.
Jean de la Bruyere
The first day one is a guest, the second a burden, and the third a pest.
Jean de la Bruyere
Nothing more clearly shows how little God esteems his gift to men of wealth, money, position and other worldly goods, than the way he distributes these, and the sort of men who are most amply provided with them.
Jean de la Bruyere
When a work lifts your spirits and inspires bold and noble thoughts in you, do not look for any other standard to judge by: the work is good, the product of a master craftsman.
Jean de la Bruyere
There is no employment in the world so laborious as that of making to one's self a great name life ends before one has scarcely made the first rough draught of his work.
Jean de la Bruyere
All confidence placed in another is dangerous if it is not perfect, for on almost all occasions we ought to tell everything or to conceal everything. We have already told too much of our secret, if one single circumstance is to be kept back.
Jean de la Bruyere
If a handsome woman allows that another woman is beautiful, we may safely conclude she excels her.
Jean de la Bruyere
The court is like a palace built of marble I mean that it is made up of very hard but very polished people. [Fr., La cour est comme un edifice bati de marbre je veux dire qu'elle est composee d'hommes fort durs mais fort polis.]
Jean de la Bruyere
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.
Jean de la Bruyere
Life is a kind of sleep: old men sleep longest, nor begin to wake but when they are to die.
Jean de la Bruyere
Widows, like ripe fruit, drop easily from their perch.
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
