Quote

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

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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
May
Hold
Engaged
Without
Fashion
Originals
Whole
Levels
Original
Unattached
Men
Position
Raises
Mingle
World
Wife
Highest
Bachelors
Less
Level
Rank
Easy
Genius
Proper
Seems
Marriage
Raise

More quotes by Jean de la Bruyere

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Rarely do they appear great before their valets.
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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.]
Jean de la Bruyere
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Among some people arrogance supplies the place of grandeur, inhumanity of decision, and roguery of intelligence.
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.
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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.
Jean de la Bruyere
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The most amiable people are those who least wound the self-love of others.
Jean de la Bruyere
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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.
Jean de la Bruyere
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A man who is free and unmarried, if he has some intelligence, can rise above his fortune, mingle in society and meet the best people on an equal footing. This is harder for a married man: marriage, it seems, confines every man to his proper rank.
Jean de la Bruyere
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Anything is a temptation to those who dread it.
Jean de la Bruyere
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One mark of a second-rate mind is to be always telling stories.
Jean de la Bruyere
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A man may have intelligence enough to excel in a particular thing and lecture on it, and yet not have sense enough to know he ought to be silent on some other subject of which he has but a slight knowledge if such an illustrious man ventures beyond the bounds of his capacity, he loses his way and talks like a fool.
Jean de la Bruyere
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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.
Jean de la Bruyere
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Favor exalts a man above his equals, but his dismissal from that favor places him below them.
Jean de la Bruyere
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There are some extraordinary fathers, who seem, during the whole course of their lives, to be giving their children reasons for being consoled at their death.
Jean de la Bruyere
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Languages are the keys of science.
Jean de la Bruyere
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Children are contemptuous, haughty, irritable, envious, sneaky, selfish, lazy, flighty, timid, liars and hypocrites, quick to laugh and cry, extreme in expressing joy and sorrow, especially about trifles, they'll do anything to avoid pain but they enjoy inflicting it: little men already.
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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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
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The fool only is troublesome. A plan of sense perceives when he is agreeable or tiresome he disappears the very minute before he would have been thought to have stayed too long.
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