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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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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
Rarely
Appear
Hero
Great
Leur
Valets
Grands
Sont
Valet

More quotes by Jean de la Bruyere

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The generality of men expend the early part of their lives in contributing to render the latter part miserable.
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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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A man often runs the risk of throwing away a witticism if he admits that it is his own.
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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.
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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.
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Praise, of all things, is the most powerful excitement to commendable actions, and animates us in our enterprises.
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It would be a kind of ferocity to reject indifferently all sorts of praise. One should be glad to have that which comes from good men who praise in sincerity things that are really praiseworthy.
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The finest and most beautiful ideas on morals and manners have been swept away before our times, and nothing is left for us but to glean after the ancients and the ablest amongst the moderns.
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Making a book is a craft, like making a clock it needs more than native wit to be an author.
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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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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.
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A man who knows how to make good bargains or finds his money increase in his coffers, thinks presently that he has a good deal of brains and is almost fit to be a statesman.
Jean de la Bruyere
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As long as men are liable to die and are desirous to live, a physician will be made fun of, but he will be well paid.
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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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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A vain man finds his account in speaking good or evil of himself.
Jean de la Bruyere
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It is better to expose ourselves to ingratitude than to neglect our duty to the distressed.
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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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There are some men who turn a deaf ear to reason and good advice, and willfully go wrong for fear of being controlled.
Jean de la Bruyere
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Mockery is often the result of a poverty of wit.
Jean de la Bruyere