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I am told so many ill things of a man, and I see so few in him, that I begin to suspect he has a real but troublesome merit, as being likely to eclipse that of others.

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
Likely
Begin
Told
Eclipse
Others
Troublesome
Many
Suspect
Real
Suspects
Things
Merit
Men
Ill

More quotes by 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.
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How happy the station which every moment furnishes opportunities of doing good to thousands! How dangerous that which every moment exposes to the injuring of millions!
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Out of difficulties grow miracles.
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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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A vain man finds his account in speaking good or evil of himself.
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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.
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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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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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Great things astonish us, and small dishearten us. Custom makes both familiar.
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There are only three events in a man's life birth, life, and death he is not conscious of being born, he dies in pain, and he forgets to live.
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It is weakness which makes us hate an enemy and seek revenge, and it is idleness that pacifies us and causes us to neglect it.
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We wish to constitute all the happiness, or, if that cannot be, the misery of the one we love.
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We should laugh before being happy, for fear of dying without having laughed.
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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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It is better to expose ourselves to ingratitude than to neglect our duty to the distressed.
Jean de la Bruyere
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Intelligence is to genius as the whole is in proportion to its part. [Fr., Entre esprit et talent il y a la proportion du tout a sa partie.]
Jean de la Bruyere
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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 punishment of a criminal is an example to the rabble but every decent man is concerned if an innocent person is condemned.
Jean de la Bruyere
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Next to sound judgment, diamonds and pearls are the rarest things in the world.
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Great things only require to be simply told, for they are spoiled by emphasis but little things should be clothed in lofty language, as they are only kept up by expression, tone of voice, and style of delivery.
Jean de la Bruyere