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The nearer we come to great men the more clearly we see that they are only men. They rarely seem great to their valets.
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
Clearly
Greatness
Seem
Seems
Come
Valets
Great
Valet
Men
Nearer
Rarely
More quotes by Jean de la Bruyere
Both as to high and low indifferently, men are prepossessed, charmed, fascinated by success successful crimes are praised very much like virtue itself, and good fortune is not far from occupying the place of the whole cycle of virtues. It must be an atrocious act, a base and hateful deed, which success would not be able to justify.
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Let us not complain against men because otheir rudeness, their ingratitude, their injustice, their arrogance, their love oself, their forgetfulness oothers. They are so made. Such is their nature.
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A wise man neither suffers himself to be governed, nor attempts to govern others.
Jean de la Bruyere
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.]
Jean de la Bruyere
What is certain in death is somewhat softened by what is uncertain it is an indefiniteness in the time, which holds a certain relation to the infinite, and what is called eternity.
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A man's worth is estimated in this world according to his conduct.
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A man is rich whose income is larger than his expenses, and he is poor if his expenses are greater than his income.
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All the worth of some people lies in their name upon a closer inspection it dwindles to nothing, but from a distance it deceives us.
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A party spirit betrays the greatest men to act as meanly as the vulgar herd.
Jean de la Bruyere
A heap of epithets is poor praise: the praise lies in the facts, and in the way of telling them.
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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
Languages are no more than the keys of Sciences. He who despises one, slights the other.
Jean de la Bruyere
We never deceive for a good purpose: knavery adds malice to falsehood.
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A man unattached and without wife, if he have any genius at all, may raise himself above his original position, may mingle with the world of fashion, and hold himself on a level with the highest this is less easy for him who is engaged it seems as if marriage put the whole world in their proper rank.
Jean de la Bruyere
Anything is a temptation to those who dread it.
Jean de la Bruyere
Courtly manners are contagious they are caught at Versailles.
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Between good sense and good taste there lies the difference between a cause and its effect.
Jean de la Bruyere
The art of conversation consists far less in displaying much wit oneself than in helping others to be witty: the man who leaves your company pleased with himself and his own wit is very well pleased with you.
Jean de la Bruyere
In Friendship we only see those faults which may be prejudicial to our friends. In love we see no faults but those by which we suffer ourselves.
Jean de la Bruyere
It requires more than mere genius to be an author.
Jean de la Bruyere
