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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
Valet
Great
Men
Nearer
Rarely
Clearly
Greatness
Seem
Seems
Valets
Come

More quotes by Jean de la Bruyere

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A man is thirty years old before he has any settled thoughts of his fortune it is not completed before fifty. He falls to building in his old age, and dies by the time his house is in a condition to be painted and glazed.
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It is in vain to ridicule a rich fool, for the laughers will be on his side.
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Friendship * * * is a long time in forming, it is of slow growth, through many trials and months of familiarity.
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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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Extremes are vicious, and proceed from men compensation is just, and proceeds from God.
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Praise, of all things, is the most powerful excitement to commendable actions, and animates us in our enterprises.
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Hatred is so lasting and stubborn, that reconciliation on a sickbed certainly forebodes death.
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Profound ignorance makes a man dogmatic. The man who knows nothing thinks he is teaching others what he has just learned himself the man who knows a great deal can't imagine that what he is saying is not common knowledge, and speaks more indifferently.
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Physiognomy is not a guide that has been given us by which to judge of the character of men: it may only serve us for conjecture. [Fr., La physionomie n'est pas une regle qui nous soit donnee pour juger des hommes elle nous peut servir de conjecture.]
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We never deceive for a good purpose: knavery adds malice to falsehood.
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A man of variable mind is not one man, but several men in one he multiplies himself as often as he changes his taste and manners he is not this minute what he was the last, and will not be the next what he is now he is his own successor.
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Sudden love is latest cured.
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High birth is a gift of fortune which should never challenge esteem towards those who receive it, since it costs them neither study nor labor.
Jean de la Bruyere
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Languages are the keys of science.
Jean de la Bruyere
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A man without characteristics is a most insipid character.
Jean de la Bruyere
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It is through madness that we hate an enemy, and think of revenging ourselves and it is through indolence that we are appeased, and do not revenge ourselves.
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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.
Jean de la Bruyere
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To express truth is to write naturally, forcibly, and delicately.
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Wit is the god of moments, but Genius is the god of ages.
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How happy the station which every moment furnishes opportunities of doing good to thousands! How dangerous that which every moment exposes to the injuring of millions!
Jean de la Bruyere