Quote

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.

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
Less
Pleased
Helping
Consists
Spirit
Witty
Others
Leaves
Well
Oneself
Much
Conversation
Deals
Displaying
Company
Cleverness

More quotes by Jean de la Bruyere

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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!
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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.
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If men wish to be held in esteem, they must associate with those only who are estimable.
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Among some people arrogance supplies the place of grandeur, inhumanity of decision, and roguery of intelligence.
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Sudden love is latest cured.
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A man's worth is estimated in this world according to his conduct.
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Death happens but once, yet we feel it every moment of our lives it is worse to dread it than to suffer it.
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False glory is the rock of vanity it seduces men to affect esteem by things which they indeed possess, but which are frivolous, and which for a man to value himself on would be a scandalous error.
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Grief at the absence of a loved one is happiness compared to life with a person one hates.
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Mockery is often the result of a poverty of wit.
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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.
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Friendship * * * is a long time in forming, it is of slow growth, through many trials and months of familiarity.
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A vain man finds his account in speaking good or evil of himself.
Jean de la Bruyere
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A vain man finds it wise to speak good or ill of himself a modest man does not talk of himself.
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This great misfortune, to be incapable of solitude.
Jean de la Bruyere
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Nothing is easier for passion than to overcome reason, but the greatest triumph is to conquer a man's own interests.
Jean de la Bruyere
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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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A pious man is one who would be an atheist if the king were.
Jean de la Bruyere
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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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For some people, speaking and giving offence are one and the same thing. They are spiteful and bitter their style is infused with gall and wormwood mockery, abuse and insults flow from their lips like spittle.
Jean de la Bruyere