Jean de la Bruyere Men Quotations [Page 2]

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.

In all conditions of life a poor man is a near neighbor to an honest one, and a rich man is as little removed from a knave.

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 must be very inert to have no character at all.

Profound ignorance makes a man dogmatical.

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.

I am not astonished that men who lean, as it were, on an atom, should stumble at the smallest efforts they make for discovering the truth ; that, being so short-sighted, they do not reach beyond the heavens and the stars, to contemplate God Himself.

Women are at little trouble to express what they do not feel; but men are still at less to express what they do feel.

It is difficult for a proud man ever to forgive a person who has found him at fault, and who has good grounds for complaining of him; his pride is not assuaged till he has regained the advantages he lost and put the other person in the wrong.

The same amount of pride which makes a man treat haughtily his inferiors, makes him cringe servilely; to those above him.

It is very rare to find ground which produces nothing; if it is not covered with flowers, with fruit trees and grains, it produces briers and pines. It is the same with man; if he is not virtuous, he becomes vicious.

Death happens but once, yet we feel it every moment of our lives; it is worse to dread it than to suffer it.

The nearer we approach great men, the clearer we see that they are men.

How many men are like trees, already strong and full grown, which are transplanted into some gardens, to the astonishment of those people who behold them in these fine spots, where they never saw them grow, and who neither know their beginning nor their progress!

The highest reach of a news-writer is an empty Reasoning on Policy, and vain Conjectures on the public Management.

A coxcomb is the blockhead's man of merit.

Men blush less for their crimes than for their weaknesses and vanity. [Fr., Les hommes rougissent moins de leur crimes que de leurs faiblesses et de leur vanite.]

A blockhead cannot come in, nor go away, nor sit, nor rise, nor stand, like a man of sense.

Party loyalty lowers the greatest men to the petty level of the masses.

False modesty is the masterpiece of vanity: showing the vain man in such an illusory light that he appears in the reputation of the virtue quite opposite to the vice which constitutes his real character; it is a deceit.

Every man is valued in this world as he shows by his conduct that he wishes to be valued.

Next to sound judgment, diamonds and pearls are the rarest things in the world.

As long as men are liable to die and are desirous to live, a physician will be made fun of, but he will be well paid.

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

Everything has been said, and we have come too late, now that men have been living and thinking for seven thousand years and more.

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.

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.

No man is so perfect, so necessary to his friends as to give them no cause to miss him less.

The punishment of a criminal is an example to the rabble; but every decent man is concerned if an innocent person is condemned.

Let us not envy some men their accumulated riches; their burden would be too heavy for us; we could not sacrifice, as they do, health, quiet, honor and conscience, to obtain them: It is to pay so dear from them that the bargain is a loss.

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

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.

That man is good who does good to others; if he suffers on account of the good he does, he is very good; if he suffers at the hands of those to whom he has done good, then his goodness is so great that it could be enhanced only by greater sufferings; and if he should die at their hands, his virtue can go no further: it is heroic, it is perfect.

It is a great misfortune neither to have enough wit to talk well nor enough judgment to be silent.

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.

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.

I am not surprised that there are gambling houses, like so many snares laid for human avarice; like abysses where many a man's money is engulfed and swallowed up without any hope of return; like frightful rocks against which the gamblers are thrown and perish.

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.]