Jean de la Bruyere Quotes - Page 13

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• The nearer we come to great men the more clearly we see that they are only men. They rarely seem great to their valets.

  Jean de la Bruyere

  Greatness, Men, Valet

  7 Copy quote

• Modesty is to merit, what shade is to figures in a picture; it gives it strength and makes it stand out.

  Jean de la Bruyere

  Giving, Shade, Merit

  "Characters: Of Personal Merit," #17, 1688.

  8 Copy quote

• We must strive to make ourselves really worthy of some employment. We need pay no attention to anything else; the rest is the business of others.

  Jean de la Bruyere

  Needs, Attention, Employment

  4 Copy quote

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

  Jean de la Bruyere

  Running, Men, Risk

  7 Copy quote

• To make a book is as much a trade as to make a clock; something more than intelligence is required to become an author.

  Jean de la Bruyere

  Book, Reading, Clock

  4 Copy quote

• It is a great misfortune not to possess sufficient wit to speak well, nor sufficient judgment to keep silent.

  Jean de la Bruyere

  Speech, Speak, Judgment

  4 Copy quote

• Courtly manners are contagious; they are caught at Versailles.

  Jean de la Bruyere

  Versailles, Manners, Caught

  58 Copy quote

• Favor exalts a man above his equals, but his dismissal from that favor places him below them.

  Jean de la Bruyere

  Men, Favors, Dismissal

  8 Copy quote

• Wit is the god of moments, but Genius is the god of ages.

  Jean de la Bruyere

  Age, Genius, Moments

  7 Copy quote

• 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

  Genius, Talent, Proportion

  4 Copy quote

• It is a proof of boorishness to confer a favor with a bad grace; it is the act of giving that is hard and painful. How little does a smile cost?

  Jean de la Bruyere

  Giving, Grace, Doe

  4 Copy quote

• Some young people do not sufficiently understand the advantages of natural charms, and how much they would gain by trusting to them entirely. They weaken these gifts of heaven, so rare and fragile, by affected manners and an awkward imitation. Their tones and their gait are borrowed; they study their attitudes before the glass until they have lost all trace of natural manner, and, with all their pains, they please but little.

  Jean de la Bruyere

  Pain, Attitude, Glasses

  5 Copy quote

• Rarely do they appear great before their valets.
  [Fr., Rarement ils sont grands vis-a-vis de leur valets-de-chambre.]

  Jean de la Bruyere

  Hero, Valet

  4 Copy quote

• The generality of men expend the early part of their lives in contributing to render the latter part miserable.

  Jean de la Bruyere

  Men, Miserable, Latter

  4 Copy quote

• Jesting, often, only proves a want of intellect.
  [Fr., La moquerie est souvent une indigence d'esprit.]

  Jean de la Bruyere

  Want, Intellect, Prove

  4 Copy quote

• Logic is the art of convincing us some truth.

  Jean de la Bruyere

  Art, Logic, Convincing

  4 Copy quote

• 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

  Stupid, Two, Support

  10 Copy quote

• 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

  Real, Men, Merit

  9 Copy quote

• I do not doubt but that genuine piety is the spring of peace of mind; it enables us to bear the sorrows of life, and lessens the pangs of death: the same cannot be said of hypocrisy.

  Jean de la Bruyere

  Spring, Hypocrisy, Doubt

  12 Copy quote

• Too great carelessness, equally with excess in dress, multiplies the wrinkles of old age, and makes its decay still more conspicuous.

  Jean de la Bruyere

  Wrinkles, Age, Dresses

  4 Copy quote

• There is no employment in the world so laborious as that of making to one's self a great name; life ends before one has scarcely made the first rough draught of his work.

  Jean de la Bruyere

  Self, Names, Employment

  7 Copy quote

• There is nothing which continues longer than a moderate fortune; nothing of which one sees sooner the end than a large fortune.

  Jean de la Bruyere

  Ends, Fortune, Moderates

  7 Copy quote

• Men make the best friends.

  Jean de la Bruyere

  Friends, Men

  7 Copy quote

• In Friendship we only see those faults which may be prejudicial to our friends. In love we see no faults but those by which we suffer ourselves.

  Jean de la Bruyere

  Friendship, Suffering, May

  7 Copy quote

• I never have wit until I am below stairs.
  [Fr., Je n'ai jamais d'esprit qu'au bas de l'escalier.]

  Jean de la Bruyere

  Stairs, Wit

  10 Copy quote

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