Quote

It is a proof of boorishness to confer a favor with a bad grace it is the act of giving that is hard and painful. How little does a smile cost?

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
Giving
Painful
Smile
Cost
Grace
Doe
Confer
Littles
Favor
Little
Favors
Hard
Proof

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If women were by nature what they make themselves by art if they were to lose suddenly all the freshness of their complexion, and their faces to become as fiery and as leaden as they make them with the red and the paint they besmear themselves with, they would consider themselves the most wretched creatures on earth.
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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.]
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There are some men who turn a deaf ear to reason and good advice, and willfully go wrong for fear of being controlled.
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A long disease seems to be a halting place between life and death, that death itself may be a comfort to those who die and to those who are left behind.
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A man often runs the risk of throwing away a witticism if he admits that it is his own.
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A man reveals his character even in the simplest things he does.
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The doctors allow one to die, the charlatans kill.
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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.
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There is not in the world so toilsome a trade as the pursuit of fame life concludes before you have so much as sketched your work.
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We are more sociable, and get on better with people by the heart than the intellect.
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A simple garb is the proper costume of the vulgar it is cut for them, and exactly suits their measure, but it is an ornament for those who have filled up their lives with great deeds. I liken them to beauty in dishabille, but more bewitching on that account.
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It is no more in our power to love always than it was not to love at all.
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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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When what you read elevates your mind and fills you with noble aspirations, look for no other rule by which to judge a book it is good, and is the work of a master-hand.
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Men regret their life has been ill-spent, but this does not always induce them to make a better use of the time they have yet to live.
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The pleasure a man of honor enjoys in the consciousness of having performed his duty is a reward he pays himself for all his pains.
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It is a fool's privilege to laugh at an intelligent man.
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A pious man is one who would be an atheist if the king were.
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Favor exalts a man above his equals, but his dismissal from that favor places him below them.
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Widows, like ripe fruit, drop easily from their perch.
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