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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

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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
Much
Appears
Really
Puts
Men
Stranger
Difference
Differences
Face
Faces
Character
Hypocrisy

More quotes by Jean de la Bruyere

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Misers are neither relations, nor friends, nor citizens, nor Christians, nor perhaps even human beings.
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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.
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It takes talent to please the people in a sermon by a flowery style, a cheerful ethic, brilliant sallies and lively descriptions but such a talent is inadequate. A better sort of talent neglects these extraneous ornaments, unworthy to be used in the service of the Gospel: such a preacher's sermon will be simple, strong and Christian.
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Women become attached to men by the intimacies they grant them men are cured of their love by the same intimacies.
Jean de la Bruyere
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If men wish to be held in esteem, they must associate with those only who are estimable.
Jean de la Bruyere
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Great things astonish us, and small dishearten us. Custom makes both familiar.
Jean de la Bruyere
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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
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The rarest things in the world, next to a spirit of discernment, are diamonds and pearls. [Fr., Apres l'esprit de discernement, ce qu'il y a au monde de plus rare, ce sont les diamants et les perles.]
Jean de la Bruyere
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The Great slight the men of wit, who have nothing but wit the men of wit despise the Great, who have nothing but greatness the good man pities them both, if with greatness or wit they have not virtue.
Jean de la Bruyere
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We seldom repent talking little, but very often talking too much.
Jean de la Bruyere
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A man often runs the risk of throwing away a witticism if he admits that it is his own.
Jean de la Bruyere
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A person's worth in this world is estimated according to the value he puts on himself.
Jean de la Bruyere
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The beginning and the end of love are both marked by embarrassment when the two find themselves alone. [Fr., Le commencement et le declin de l'amour se font sentir par l'embarras ou l'on est de se trouver seuls.]
Jean de la Bruyere
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We must strive to make ourselves really worthy of some employment. We need pay no attention to anything else the rest is the business of others.
Jean de la Bruyere
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The whole genius of an author consists in describing well, and delineating character well. Homer, Plato, Virgil, Horace only excel other writers by their expressions and images we must indicate what is true if we mean to write naturally, forcibly and delicately.
Jean de la Bruyere
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We meet With few utterly dull and stupid souls: the sublime and transcendent are still fewer the generality of mankind stand between these two extremes: the interval is filled with multitudes of ordinary geniuses, but all very useful, and the ornaments and supports of the commonwealth.
Jean de la Bruyere
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Most men spend the first half of their lives making the second half miserable.
Jean de la Bruyere
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A party spirit betrays the greatest men to act as meanly as the vulgar herd.
Jean de la Bruyere
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Most men spend the best part of their lives making the remaining part wretched.
Jean de la Bruyere
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I take sanctuary in an honest mediocrity.
Jean de la Bruyere