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

More quotes by Jean de la Bruyere

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The flatterer does not think highly enough of himself or of others.
Jean de la Bruyere
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Caprice in women often infringes upon the rules of decency.
Jean de la Bruyere
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The court is like a palace built of marble I mean that it is made up of very hard but very polished people. [Fr., La cour est comme un edifice bati de marbre je veux dire qu'elle est composee d'hommes fort durs mais fort polis.]
Jean de la Bruyere
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You think him to be your dupe if he feigns to be so who is the greater dupe, he or you?
Jean de la Bruyere
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All men's misfortunes spring from their hatred of being alone.
Jean de la Bruyere
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For a woman to be at once a coquette and a bigot is more than the humblest of husbands can bear she should mercifully choose between the two.
Jean de la Bruyere
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We are more sociable, and get on better with people by the heart than the intellect.
Jean de la Bruyere
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We never love with all our heart and all our soul but once, and that is the first time.
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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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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A vain man finds it wise to speak good or ill of himself a modest man does not talk of himself.
Jean de la Bruyere
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We meet With few utterly dull and stupid souls: the sublime and transcendent are still fewer the generality of mankind stand between these two extremes: the interval is filled with multitudes of ordinary geniuses, but all very useful, and the ornaments and supports of the commonwealth.
Jean de la Bruyere
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This great misfortune, to be incapable of solitude.
Jean de la Bruyere
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Discretion is the perfection of reason, and a guide to us in all the duties of life. It is only found in men of sound sense and understanding.
Jean de la Bruyere
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A mediocre mind thinks it writes divinely a good mind thinks it writes reasonably.
Jean de la Bruyere
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A man must have very eminent qualities to hold his own without being polite.
Jean de la Bruyere
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There is no excess in the world so commendable as excessive gratitude.
Jean de la Bruyere
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Children have neither past nor future and that which seldom happens to us, they rejoice in the present. [Fr., Les enfants n'ont ni passe ni avenir et, ce qui ne nous arrive guere, ils jouissent du present.]
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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Among some people arrogance supplies the place of grandeur, inhumanity of decision, and roguery of intelligence.
Jean de la Bruyere