Quote

False glory is the rock of vanity it seduces men to affect esteem by things which they indeed possess, but which are frivolous, and which for a man to value himself on would be a scandalous error.

Jean de la Bruyere

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

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
Values
Esteem
Seduces
Things
False
Scandalous
Would
Errors
Seducing
Men
Indeed
Frivolous
Rock
Affect
Rocks
Error
Glory
Possess
Value
Vanity

More quotes by Jean de la Bruyere

Image
We are valued in this world at the rate we desire to be valued.
Jean de la Bruyere
Image
There is a pleasure in meeting the glance of a person whom we have lately laid under some obligations.
Jean de la Bruyere
Image
The passion of hatred is so long lived and so obstinate a malady that the surest sign of death in a sick person is their desire for reconciliation.
Jean de la Bruyere
Image
Praise, of all things, is the most powerful excitement to commendable actions, and animates us in our enterprises.
Jean de la Bruyere
Image
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
Image
A man is thirty years old before he has any settled thoughts of his fortune it is not completed before fifty. He falls to building in his old age, and dies by the time his house is in a condition to be painted and glazed.
Jean de la Bruyere
Image
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
Image
The whole genius of an author consists in describing well, and delineating character well. Homer, Plato, Virgil, Horace only excel other writers by their expressions and images we must indicate what is true if we mean to write naturally, forcibly and delicately.
Jean de la Bruyere
Image
Rarely do they appear great before their valets.
Jean de la Bruyere
Image
It is not so easy to obtain a reputation by a perfect work as to enhance the value of an indifferent one by a reputation already acquired.
Jean de la Bruyere
Image
Making a book is a craft, like making a clock it needs more than native wit to be an author.
Jean de la Bruyere
Image
It is often easier as well as more advantageous to conform to other men's opinions than to bring them over to ours.
Jean de la Bruyere
Image
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
Image
He who only writes to suit the taste of the age, considers himself more than his writings. We should always aim at perfection, and then posterity will do us that justice which sometimes our contemporaries refuse us.
Jean de la Bruyere
Image
Hatred is so lasting and stubborn, that reconciliation on a sickbed certainly forebodes death.
Jean de la Bruyere
Image
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
Image
Laziness begat wearisomeness, and this put men in quest of diversions, play and company, on which however it is a constant attendant he who works hard, has enough to do with himself otherwise.
Jean de la Bruyere
Image
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
Image
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.
Jean de la Bruyere
Image
Wit is the god of moments, but Genius is the god of ages.
Jean de la Bruyere