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The finest and most beautiful ideas on morals and manners have been swept away before our times, and nothing is left for us but to glean after the ancients and the ablest amongst the moderns.

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
Nothing
Finest
Manners
Ablest
Moral
Glean
Times
Moderns
Left
Ancients
Away
Swept
Beautiful
Amongst
Ideas
Morals

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He who can wait for what he desires takes the course not to be exceedingly grieved if he fails of it he, on the contrary, who labors after a thing too impatiently thinks the success when it comes is not a recompense equal to all the pains he has been at about it.
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Most men spend the first half of their lives making the second half miserable.
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All confidence placed in another is dangerous if it is not perfect, for on almost all occasions we ought to tell everything or to conceal everything. We have already told too much of our secret, if one single circumstance is to be kept back.
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Those who make the worst use of their time are the first to complain of its shortness.
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A man reveals his character even in the simplest things he does.
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To give awkwardly is churlishness. The most difficult part is to give, then why not add a smile?
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It is a sad thing when men have neither enough intelligence to speak well nor enough sense to hold their tongues this is the root of all impertinence.
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If it be usual to be strongly impressed by things that are scarce, why are we so little impressed by virtue?
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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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We are valued in this world at the rate we desire to be valued.
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We should only endeavour to think and speak correctly ourselves, without wishing to bring others over to our taste and opinions.
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All the worth of some people lies in their name upon a closer inspection it dwindles to nothing, but from a distance it deceives us.
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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.
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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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Nothing more clearly shows how little God esteems his gift to men of wealth, money, position and other worldly goods, than the way he distributes these, and the sort of men who are most amply provided with them.
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A man can deceive a woman by his sham attachment to her provided he does not have a real attachment elsewhere.
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The regeneration of society is the regeneration of society by individual education.
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We wish to constitute all the happiness, or, if that cannot be, the misery of the one we love.
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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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It is often easier as well as more advantageous to conform to other men's opinions than to bring them over to ours.
Jean de la Bruyere