Jean de la Bruyere Men Quotations

There is no road too long to the man who advances deliberately and without undue haste; there are no honors too distant to the man who prepares himself for them with patience.

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.

It is a sad thing when men have neither the wit to speak well nor the judgment to hold their tongues.

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

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

Marriage, it seems, confines every man to his proper rank.

It's motive alone which gives character to the actions of men.

The slave has but one master, the ambitious man has as many as there are persons whose aid may contribute to the advancement of his fortunes.

A vain man finds it wise to speak good or ill of himself; a modest man does not talk of himself.

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

Men blush less for their crimes than for their weaknesses and vanity.

As favor and riches forsake a man, we discover in him the foolishness they concealed, and which no one perceived before.

Even the best intentioned of great men need a few scoundrels around them; there are some things you cannot ask an honest ma to do.

A modest man never talks of himself.

If men wish to be held in esteem, they must associate with those only who are estimable.

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

Friendship can exist between persons of different sexes, without any coarse or sensual feelings; yet a woman always looks upon a man as a man, and so a man will look upon a woman as a woman.

I call those men worldly, earthly, or coarse, whose hearts and minds are wholly fixed on this earth, that small part of the universe they are placed in ; who value and love nothing beyond it ; whose minds are as cramped as that narrow spot of ground they call their estate, of which the extent is measured, the acres are numbered, and the limits well known.

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 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.

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.

The same principle leads us to neglect a man of merit that induces us to admire a fool. [Fr., Du meme fonds dont on neglige un homme de merite l'on sait encore admirer un sot.]

It is motive alone that gives real value to the actions of men, and disinterestedness puts the cap to it.

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.

It is more or less rude to scorn indiscriminately all kinds of praise; we ought to be proud of that which comes from honest men, who praise sincerely those things in us which are really commendable.

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

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.

Profound ignorance makes a man dogmatic. The man who knows nothing thinks he is teaching others what he has just learned himself; the man who knows a great deal can't imagine that what he is saying is not common knowledge, and speaks more indifferently.

The lives of heroes have enriched history, and history has adorned the actions of heroes ; and thus I cannot say whether the historians are more indebted to those who provided them with such noble materials, or those great men to their historians.

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

There is nothing men are so anxious to keep, and yet are so careless about, as life.

It is a fool's privilege to laugh at an intelligent man.

Women become attached to men by the intimacies they grant them; men are cured of their love by the same intimacies.

If it be true that a man is rich who wants nothing, a wise man is a very rich man.

What can be more discouraging to a man than to doubt if his soul be material, like a stone or a reptile, and subject to corruption like the vilest creatures? And does it not prove much more strength of mind and grandeur to be able to conceive the idea of a Being superior to all other beings, by whom and for whom all things were made ; of a Being absolutely perfect and pure, without beginning or end, of whom our soul is the image, and of whom, if I may say so, it is a part, because it is spiritual and immortal?

Let us not envy a certain class of men for their enormous riches; they have paid such an equivalent for them that it would not suit us; they have given for them their peace of mind, their health, their honour, and their conscience; this is rather too dear, and there is nothing to be made out of such a bargain.

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

Some men promise to keep your secret and yet reveal it without knowing they are doing so; they do not wag their lips, and yet they are understood; it is read on their brow and in their eyes; it is seen through their breast; they are transparent.

Most men spend the first half of their lives making the second half miserable.

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

Nothing is easier for passion than to overcome reason, but the greatest triumph is to conquer a man's own interests.

There are some men who turn a deaf ear to reason and good advice, and willfully go wrong for fear of being controlled.

Nothing makes us better understand what trifling things Providence thinks He bestows on men in granting them wealth, money, dignities, and other advantages, than the manner in which they are distributed and the kind of men who have the largest share.

Let us not complain against men because otheir rudeness, their ingratitude, their injustice, their arrogance, their love oself, their forgetfulness oothers. They are so made. Such is their nature.

To what excesses do men rush for the sake of religion, of whose truth they are so little persuaded, and to whose precepts they pay so little regard!

Man makes up his mind he will preach, and he preaches.

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

When a man puts on a Character he is a stranger to, there's as much difference between what he appears, and what he is really in himself, as there is between a VIzor and a Face.

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

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

Most men make use of the first part of their life to render the last part miserable.

Life at court does not satisfy a man, but it keeps him from being satisfied with anything else.

We seek our happiness outside ourselves, and in the opinion of men we know to be flatterers, insincere, unjust, full of envy, caprice and prejudice.

Women run to extremes, they are either better or worse than men.

It is the glory and merit of some men to write well and of others not to write at all.

It is because of men that women dislike one another.

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

A wise man is not governed by others, nor does he try to govern them; he prefers that reason alone prevail.

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

Lofty posts make great men greater still, and small men much smaller.

When a secret is revealed, it is the fault of the man who confided it.

The reason that women do not love one another is - men.

A wise man neither suffers himself to be governed, nor attempts to govern others.

There are but three events which concern man: birth, life and death. They are unconscious of their birth, they suffer when they die, and they neglect to live.

From time to time there appear on the face of the earth men of rare and consummate excellence, who dazzle us by their virtue, and whose outstanding qualities shed a stupendous light. Like those extraordinary stars of whose origins we are ignorant, and of whose fate, once they have vanished, we know even less, such men have neither forebears nor descendants: they are the whole of their race.

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

As riches and honor forsake a man, we discover him to be a fool, but nobody could find it out in his prosperity.

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

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.

Men fall from great fortune because of the same shortcomings that led to their rise.

Outward simplicity befits ordinary men, like a garment made to measure for them; but it serves as an adornment to those who have filled their lives with great deeds: they might be compared to some beauty carelessly dressed and thereby all the more attractive.

Nothing more clearly shows how little God esteems his gift to men of wealth, money, position and other worldly goods, than the way he distributes these, and the sort of men who are most amply provided with them.

Criticism is often not a science; it is a craft, requiring more good health than wit, more hard work than talent, more habit than native genius. In the hands of a man who has read widely but lacks judgment, applied to certain subjects it can corrupt both its readers and the writer himself.

Make me chaste and To what excesses will men not go for the sake of a religion in which they believe so little and which they practice so imperfectly!

It is often easier as well as more advantageous to conform to other men's opinions than to bring them over to ours.

The pleasure a man of honor enjoys in the consciousness of having performed his duty is a reward he pays himself for all his pains.

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.

Men make the best friends.

One faithful Friend is enough for a man's self, 'tis much to meet with such an one, yet we can't have too many for the sake of others.

Pure friendship is something which men of an inferior intellect can never taste.

Men are the cause of women not loving one another. [Fr., Les hommes sont la cause que les femmes ne s'aiment point.]

Life is a kind of sleep: old men sleep longest, nor begin to wake but when they are to die.

Most men employ the first part of life to make the other part miserable. [Fr., La plupart des hommes emploient la premiere part vie a rendre l'autre miserable.]

Physiognomy is not a guide that has been given us by which to judge of the character of men: it may only serve us for conjecture. [Fr., La physionomie n'est pas une regle qui nous soit donnee pour juger des hommes; elle nous peut servir de conjecture.]

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.

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.

Extremes are vicious, and proceed from men; compensation is just, and proceeds from God.

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

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

A woman is easily governed, if a man takes her in hand.

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

It would be a kind of ferocity to reject indifferently all sorts of praise. One should be glad to have that which comes from good men who praise in sincerity things that are really praiseworthy.

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.

The best thing next to wit is a consciousness that it is not in us; without wit, a man might then know how to behave himself, so as not to appear to be a fool or a coxcomb.

Eminent station makes great men more great, and little ones less.

Young people are dazzled by the brilliancy of antithesis, and employ it. Matter-of-fact men, and those who like precision, naturally fall into comparisons and metaphor. Sprightly natures, full of fire, and whom a boundless imagination carries beyond all rules, and even what is reasonable, cannot rest satisfied even with hyperbole. As for the sublime, it is only great geniuses and those of the very highest order that are able to rise to its height.

The opposite of what is noised about concerning men and things is often the truth. [Fr., Le contraire des bruits qui courent des affaires ou des personnes est souvent la verite.]

A vain man finds his account in speaking good or evil of himself.

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.

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.