Quote

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

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

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

More quotes by Jean de la Bruyere

Image
I call worldly or earthly those whose minds and hearts are fixed on a tiny portion of this world they live in, which is our earth who respect and love nothing beyond it: people as limited as what they call their property or their estate, which can be measured, whose acres can be counted, whose boundaries can be shown.
Jean de la Bruyere
Image
Hatred is so lasting and stubborn, that reconciliation on a sickbed certainly forebodes death.
Jean de la Bruyere
Image
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.]
Jean de la Bruyere
Image
Rarely do they appear great before their valets.
Jean de la Bruyere
Image
Love receives its death-wound from aversion, and forgetfulness buries it.
Jean de la Bruyere
Image
A mediocre mind thinks it writes divinely a good mind thinks it writes reasonably.
Jean de la Bruyere
Image
When a secret is revealed, it is the fault of the man who confided it.
Jean de la Bruyere
Image
Great things only require to be simply told, for they are spoiled by emphasis but little things should be clothed in lofty language, as they are only kept up by expression, tone of voice, and style of delivery.
Jean de la Bruyere
Image
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
Image
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
Image
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.
Jean de la Bruyere
Image
A vain man finds it wise to speak good or ill of himself a modest man does not talk of himself.
Jean de la Bruyere
Image
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
Image
It is virtue which should determine us in the choice of our friends, without inquiring into their good or evil fortune.
Jean de la Bruyere
Image
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
Image
All men's misfortunes spring from their hatred of being alone.
Jean de la Bruyere
Image
Most men spend the best part of their lives making the remaining part wretched.
Jean de la Bruyere
Image
Widows, like ripe fruit, drop easily from their perch.
Jean de la Bruyere
Image
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
Image
Criticism is as often a trade as a science, requiring, as it does, more health than wit, more labour than capacity, more practice than genius.
Jean de la Bruyere