Share
×
Inspirational Quotes
Authors
Professions
Topics
Tags
Quote
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
Share
Change background
T
T
T
Change font
Original
TAGS & TOPICS
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
Seem
Seems
Come
Valets
Great
Valet
Men
Nearer
Rarely
Clearly
Greatness
More quotes by Jean de la Bruyere
Party loyalty lowers the greatest men to the petty level of the masses.
Jean de la Bruyere
A guilty man is punished as an example for the mob an innocent man convicted is the business of every honest citizen.
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
Foolish jokers are thick on the ground, and it rains insects of that sort everywhere. A good joker is a rarity even a man who is such by nature finds it hard to sustain the part for long it seldom happens that the man who makes us laugh wins our esteem.
Jean de la Bruyere
Time makes friendship stronger, but love weaker.
Jean de la Bruyere
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
Children are contemptuous, haughty, irritable, envious, sneaky, selfish, lazy, flighty, timid, liars and hypocrites, quick to laugh and cry, extreme in expressing joy and sorrow, especially about trifles, they'll do anything to avoid pain but they enjoy inflicting it: little men already.
Jean de la Bruyere
Favor exalts a man above his equals, but his dismissal from that favor places him below them.
Jean de la Bruyere
A man can keep another's secret better than his own. A woman her own better than others.
Jean de la Bruyere
There is no road too long to the man who advances deliberately and without undue haste there are no honors too distant to the man who prepares himself for them with patience.
Jean de la Bruyere
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.
Jean de la Bruyere
When, after having read a work, loftier thoughts arise in your mind and noble and heartfelt feelings animate you, do not look for any other rule to judge it by it is fine and written in a masterly manner.
Jean de la Bruyere
A man without characteristics is a most insipid character.
Jean de la Bruyere
When a man puts on a Character he is a stranger to, there's as much difference between what he appears, and what he is really in himself, as there is between a VIzor and a Face.
Jean de la Bruyere
It is the glory and merit of some men to write well and of others not to write at all.
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
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
Discretion is the perfection of reason, and a guide to us in all the duties of life. It is only found in men of sound sense and understanding.
Jean de la Bruyere
A long disease seems to be a halting place between life and death, that death itself may be a comfort to those who die and to those who are left behind.
Jean de la Bruyere
We seldom repent of speaking little, very often of speaking too much: a vulgar and trite maxim, which all the world knows and, but which all the world does not practice
Jean de la Bruyere
