Quote

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

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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
Speak
Teaching
Makes
Deal
Indifferently
Others
Deals
Dogmatic
Nothing
Learned
Speaks
Great
Saying
Thinks
Men
Imagine
Profound
Thinking
Knowledge
Ignorance
Common
Speech

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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.
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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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The nearer we come to great men the more clearly we see that they are only men. They rarely seem great to their valets.
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A heap of epithets is poor praise: the praise lies in the facts, and in the way of telling them.
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We all covet wealth, but not its perils.
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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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Praise, of all things, is the most powerful excitement to commendable actions, and animates us in our enterprises.
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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.]
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We never love with all our heart and all our soul but once, and that is the first time.
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Children are overbearing, supercilious, passionate, envious, inquisitive, egotistical, idle, fickle, timid, intemperate, liars, and dissemblers they laugh and weep easily, are excessive in their joys and sorrows, and that about the most trifling objects they bear no pain, but like to inflict it on others already they are men.
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A prince wants only the pleasure of private life to complete his happiness.
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To make a book is as much a trade as to make a clock something more than intelligence is required to become an author.
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If you suppress the exorbitant love of pleasure and money, idle curiosity, iniquitous pursuits and wanton mirth, what a stillness would there be in the greatest cities.
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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.
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If poverty is the mother of all crimes, lack of intelligence is the father.
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Love has this in common with scruples, that it becomes embittered by the reflections and the thoughts that beset us to free ourselves.
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A man only goes and confesses his faults to the world when his self will not acknowledge or listen to them. WYNDHAM LEWIS, Tarr Two persons will not be friends long if they are not inclined to pardon each other's little failings.
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A man without characteristics is a most insipid character.
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There is no excess in the world so commendable as excessive gratitude.
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Eloquence may be found in conversations and in all kinds of writings it is rarely found when looked for, and sometimes discovered where it is least expected.
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