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The rarest things in the world, next to a spirit of discernment, are diamonds and pearls. [Fr., Apres l'esprit de discernement, ce qu'il y a au monde de plus rare, ce sont les diamants et les perles.]

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
Diamond
Monde
Rare
Sont
Plus
Esprit
Rarest
Spirit
Discernment
Next
Diamonds
Things
Jewels
World
Pearls

More quotes by Jean de la Bruyere

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Next to sound judgment, diamonds and pearls are the rarest things in the world.
Jean de la Bruyere
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Foolish jokers are thick on the ground, and it rains insects of that sort everywhere. A good joker is a rarity even a man who is such by nature finds it hard to sustain the part for long it seldom happens that the man who makes us laugh wins our esteem.
Jean de la Bruyere
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Logic is the art of making truth prevail.
Jean de la Bruyere
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A great mind is above insults, injustice, grief, and raillery, and would be invulnerable were it not open to compassion.
Jean de la Bruyere
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An egotist will always speak of himself, either in praise or in censure, but a modest man ever shuns making himself the subject of his conversation.
Jean de la Bruyere
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During the course of our life we now and then enjoy some pleasures so inviting, and have some encounters of so tender a nature, that though they are forbidden, it is but natural to wish that they were at least allowable. Nothing can be more delightful, except it be to abandon them for virtue's sake.
Jean de la Bruyere
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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.
Jean de la Bruyere
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We wish to constitute all the happiness, or, if that cannot be, the misery of the one we love.
Jean de la Bruyere
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The highest reach of a news-writer is an empty Reasoning on Policy, and vain Conjectures on the public Management.
Jean de la Bruyere
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The pleasure we feel in criticizing robs us from being moved by very beautiful things.
Jean de la Bruyere
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I am not surprised that there are gambling houses, like so many snares laid for human avarice like abysses where many a man's money is engulfed and swallowed up without any hope of return like frightful rocks against which the gamblers are thrown and perish.
Jean de la Bruyere
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Some people pretend they never were in love and never wrote poetry two weaknesses which they dare not own -- one of the heart, the other of the mind.
Jean de la Bruyere
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Tyranny has no need of arts or sciences, for its policy, which is very shallow and without any refinement, only consists in shedding blood.
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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We seldom repent talking little, but very often talking too much.
Jean de la Bruyere
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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.
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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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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If it be usual to be strongly impressed by things that are scarce, why are we so little impressed by virtue?
Jean de la Bruyere
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All men's misfortunes spring from their hatred of being alone.
Jean de la Bruyere