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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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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We dread old age, which are not sure of being able to attain. [Fr., L'on craint la vieillesse, que l'on n'est pas sur de pouvoir atteindre.]
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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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If it be true that a man is rich who wants nothing, a wise man is a very rich man.
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The most exquisite pleasure is giving pleasure to others.
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Let us not complain against men because otheir rudeness, their ingratitude, their injustice, their arrogance, their love oself, their forgetfulness oothers. They are so made. Such is their nature.
Jean de la Bruyere
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Rarely do they appear great before their valets. [Fr., Rarement ils sont grands vis-a-vis de leur valets-de-chambre.]
Jean de la Bruyere
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Everything has been said, and we have come too late, now that men have been living and thinking for seven thousand years and more.
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One faithful Friend is enough for a man's self, 'tis much to meet with such an one, yet we can't have too many for the sake of others.
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Children enjoy the present because they have neither a past nor a future.
Jean de la Bruyere
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When a secret is revealed, it is the fault of the man who confided it.
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We ought not to make those people our enemies who might have become our friends, if we had only known them better.
Jean de la Bruyere
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He who knows how to wait for what he desires does not feel very desperate if he fails in obtaining it and he, on the contrary, who is very impatient in procuring a certain thing, takes so much pains about it, that, even when he is successful, he does not think himself sufficiently rewarded.
Jean de la Bruyere
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It is no more in our power to love always than it was not to love at all.
Jean de la Bruyere
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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.
Jean de la Bruyere
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It is too much for a husband to have a wife who is a coquette and sanctimonious as well she should select only one of those qualities.
Jean de la Bruyere
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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.
Jean de la Bruyere
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Party loyalty lowers the greatest men to the petty level of the masses.
Jean de la Bruyere
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It is better to expose ourselves to ingratitude than to neglect our duty to the distressed.
Jean de la Bruyere
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A coxcomb is one whom simpletons believe to be a man of merit.
Jean de la Bruyere