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The Great slight the men of wit, who have nothing but wit the men of wit despise the Great, who have nothing but greatness the good man pities them both, if with greatness or wit they have not virtue.

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
Great
Pities
Good
Slight
Men
Despise
Wit
Pity
Greatness
Virtue
Nothing

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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 requires more than mere genius to be an author.
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Criticism is as often a trade as a science, requiring, as it does, more health than wit, more labour than capacity, more practice than genius.
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It's motive alone which gives character to the actions of men.
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You think him to be your dupe if he feigns to be so who is the greater dupe, he or you?
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Both as to high and low indifferently, men are prepossessed, charmed, fascinated by success successful crimes are praised very much like virtue itself, and good fortune is not far from occupying the place of the whole cycle of virtues. It must be an atrocious act, a base and hateful deed, which success would not be able to justify.
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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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If you suppress the exorbitant love of pleasure and money, idle curiosity, iniquitous pursuits and wanton mirth, what a stillness would there be in the greatest cities.
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Grief at the absence of a loved one is happiness compared to life with a person one hates.
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We ought not to make those people our enemies who might have become our friends, if we had only known them better.
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One mark of a second-rate mind is to be always telling stories.
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Death happens but once, yet we feel it every moment of our lives it is worse to dread it than to suffer it.
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To give awkwardly is churlishness. The most difficult part is to give, then why not add a smile?
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Politeness does not always inspire goodness, equity, complaisance, and gratitude it gives at least the appearance of these qualities, and makes man appear outwardly, as he should be within.
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A faithless woman, if known to be such by the person concerned, is but faithless if she is believed faithful, she is treacherous.
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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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One seeks to make the loved one entirely happy, or, if that cannot be, entirely wretched.
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We need not envy certain people their great wealth they acquired it at a heavy cost, which would not suit us they staked their rest, their health, their honour and their conscience to acquire it, the price is too high, and there is nothing to be gained by such a bargain.
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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.
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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