Best 365 quotes of Jean De La Bruyere on MyQuotes

A coquette is one that is never to be persuaded out of the passion she has to please, nor out of a good opinion of her own beauty: time and years she regards as things that only wrinkle and decay other women, forgetting that age is written in the face, and that the same dress which became her when she was young now only makes her look older.

A coxcomb is one whom simpletons believe to be a man of merit.

A faithless woman, if known to be such by the person concerned, is but faithless; if she is believed faithful, she is treacherous.

A fool is one whom simpletons believe to be a man on merit. [Fr., Un fat celui que les sots croient un homme de merite.]

A good author, and one who writes carefully, often discovers that the expression of which he has been in search without being able to discover it, and which he has at last found, is that which was the most simple, the most natural, and which seems as if it ought to have presented itself at once, without effort, to the mind.

A good saying often runs the risk of being thrown away when quoted as the speaker's own. [Fr., C'est souvent hasarder un bon mot et vouloir le perdre que de le donner pour sien.]

A great mind is above insults, injustice, grief, and raillery, and would be invulnerable were it not open to compassion.

A guilty man is punished as an example for the mob; an innocent man convicted is the business of every honest citizen.

A heap of epithets is poor praise: the praise lies in the facts, and in the way of telling them.

A judge's duty is to grant justice, but his practice is to delay it: even those judges who know their duty adhere to the general practice.

All of our unhappiness comes from our inability to be alone.

All confidence placed in another is dangerous if it is not perfect, for on almost all occasions we ought to tell everything or to conceal everything. We have already told too much of our secret, if one single circumstance is to be kept back.

All men's misfortunes spring from their hatred of being alone.

All the worth of some people lies in their name; upon a closer inspection it dwindles to nothing, but from a distance it deceives us.

A lofty birth or a large fortune portend merit, and cause it to be the sooner noticed.

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.

A look of intelligence is what regularity of features is to women: it is a styule of beauty to which the most vain may aspire. [Fr., L'air spirituel est dans les hommes ce que la regularite des traits est dans les femmes: c'est le genre de beaute ou les plus vains puissent aspirer.]

A lovely countenance is the fairest of all sights, and the sweetest harmony is the sound of the voice of her whom we love.

A man can deceive a woman by his sham attachment to her provided he does not have a real attachment elsewhere.

A man can keep another's secret better than his own. A woman her own better than others.

A man has made great progress in cunning when he does not seem too clever to others.

A man is rich whose income is larger than his expenses, and he is poor if his expenses are greater than his income.

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.

A man may doubt of God's existence when he is in good health, just as he may doubt whether his relation with a harlot is sinful. When he falls ill, when dropsy develops, he leaves his concubine, and he believes in God.

A man may have intelligence enough to excel in a particular thing and lecture on it, and yet not have sense enough to know he ought to be silent on some other subject of which he has but a slight knowledge; if such an illustrious man ventures beyond the bounds of his capacity, he loses his way and talks like a fool.

A man must be completely wanting in intelligence if he does not show it when actuated by love, malice, or necessity.

A man must have very eminent qualities to hold his own without being polite.

A man of moderate Understanding, thinks he writes divinely: A man of good Understanding, thinks he writes reasonably.

A man often runs the risk of throwing away a witticism if he admits that it is his own.

A man of the world must seem to be what he wishes to be thought.

A man of variable mind is not one man, but several men in one; he multiplies himself as often as he changes his taste and manners; he is not this minute what he was the last, and will not be the next what he is now; he is his own successor.

A man reveals his character even in the simplest things he does.

A man starts upon a sudden, takes Pen, Ink, and Paper, and without ever having had a thought of it before, resolves within himself he will write a Book; he has no Talent at Writing, but he wants fifty Guineas.

A man's worth is estimated in this world according to his conduct.

A man unattached and without wife, if he have any genius at all, may raise himself above his original position, may mingle with the world of fashion, and hold himself on a level with the highest; this is less easy for him who is engaged; it seems as if marriage put the whole world in their proper rank.

A man who has schemed for some time can no longer do without it; all other ways of living are to him dull and insipid.

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.

A man who knows the court is master of his gestures, of his eyes and of his face; he is profound, impenetratable; he dissimulates bad offices, smiles at his enemies, controls his irritation, disguises his passions, belies his heartm speaks and acts against his feelings.

A mediocre mind thinks it writes divinely; a good mind thinks it writes reasonably.

Among some people arrogance supplies the place of grandeur, inhumanity of decision, and roguery of intelligence.

Amongst such as out of cunning hear all and talk little, be sure to talk less; or if you must talk, say little.

An assembly of the states, a court of justice, shows nothing so serious and grave as a table of gamesters playing very high; a melancholy solicitude clouds their looks; envy and rancor agitate their minds while the meeting lasts, without regard to friendship, alliances, birth or distinctions.

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.

An inconstant woman is one who is no longer in love; a false woman is one who is already in love with another person; a fickle woman is she who neither knows whom she loves nor whether she loves or not; and the indifferent woman, one who does not love at all.

Anything is a temptation to those who dread it.

A party spirit betrays the greatest men to act as meanly as the vulgar herd.

A person's worth in this world is estimated according to the value he puts on himself.

A pious man is one who would be an atheist if the king were.

A position of eminence makes a great person greater and a small person less.

A prince wants only the pleasure of private life to complete his happiness.