Jean de La Bruyère quotes

Life is a tragedy for those who feel, and a comedy for those who think. (Jean de La Bruyère)
If poverty is the mother of all crimes, lack of intelligence is the father. View quote
Jean de La Bruyère
Women run to extremes, they are either better or worse than men. View quote
Jean de La Bruyère
One mark of a second-rate mind is to be always telling stories. View quote
Jean de La Bruyère
Grief at the absence of a loved one is happiness compared to life with a person one hates. View quote
Jean de La Bruyère
Two persons cannot long be friends if they cannot forgive each other's little failings. View quote
Jean de La Bruyère
It is fortunate to be of high birth, but it is no less so to be of such character that people do not care to know whether you are or are not. View quote
Jean de La Bruyère
We should keep silent about those in power; to speak well of them almost implies flattery; to speak ill of them while they are alive is dangerous, and when they are dead is cowardly. View quote
Jean de La Bruyère
The giving is the hardest part; what does it cost to add a smile? View quote
Jean de La Bruyère
The Opera is obviously the first draft of a fine spectacle; it suggests the idea of one. View quote
Jean de La Bruyère
Time, which strengthens friendship, weakens love. (Jean de La Bruyère)
We can recognize the dawn and the decline of love by the uneasiness we feel when alone together. View quote
Jean de La Bruyère
One seeks to make the loved one entirely happy, or, if that cannot be, entirely wretched. View quote
Jean de La Bruyère
We must laugh before we are happy, for fear we die before we laugh at all. View quote
Jean de La Bruyère
No man is so perfect, so necessary to his friends, as to give them no cause to miss him less. View quote
Jean de La Bruyère
Between good sense and good taste there is the difference between cause and effect. View quote
Jean de La Bruyère
There are only three events in a man's life; birth, life, and death; he is not conscious of being born, he dies in pain, and he forgets to live. View quote
Jean de La Bruyère
Making a book is a craft, as is making a clock it takes more than wit to become an author. View quote
Jean de La Bruyère
Those who make the worst use of their time are the first to complain of its shortness. View quote
Jean de La Bruyère
At the beginning and at the end of love, the two lovers are embarrassed to find themselves alone. View quote
Jean de La Bruyère
Love and friendship exclude each other. (Jean de La Bruyère)
There are certain things in which mediocrity is intolerable: poetry, music, painting, public eloquence. View quote
Jean de La Bruyère
Marriage, it seems, confines every man to his proper rank. View quote
Jean de La Bruyère
As favor and riches forsake a man, we discover in him the foolishness they concealed, and which no one perceived before. View quote
Jean de La Bruyère
A great mind is above insults, injustice, grief, and raillery, and would be invulnerable were it not open to compassion. View quote
Jean de La Bruyère