Jean de la Bruyere People Quotations

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.

The court is like a palace of marble; it's composed of people very hard and very polished.

A slave has but one master; an ambitious man has as many masters as there are people who may be useful in bettering his position.

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

Some people pretend they never were in love and never wrote poetry; two weaknesses which they dare not own -- one of the heart, the other of the mind.

The best way to get on in the world is to make people believe it's to their advantage to help you.

The very essence of politeness seems to be to take care that by our words and actions we make other people pleased with us as well as with themselves.

People reveal their character even in the simplest things they do. Fools do not enter a room, nor leave it, nor sit down, nor rise, nor are they silent, nor do they stand up, like people of sense and understanding.

One should never risk a joke, even of the mildest and most unexceptional charters, except among people of culture and wit.

Piety with some people, but especially with women, is either a passion, or an infirmity of age, or a fashion which must be followed.

There are certain people who so ardently and passionately desire a thing, that from dread of losing it they leave nothing undone to make them lose it.

The shortest and best way to make your fortune is to let people see clearly that it is in their interest to promote yours.

The court is like a palace built of marble; I mean that it is made up of very hard but very polished people. [Fr., La cour est comme un edifice bati de marbre; je veux dire qu'elle est composee d'hommes fort durs mais fort polis.]

The most amiable people are those who least wound the self-love of others.

We are more sociable, and get on better with people by the heart than the intellect.

We ought not to make those people our enemies who might have become our friends, if we had only known them better.

To speak and to offend is with some people but one and the same thing.

A preacher must have some intelligence to charm the people by his florid style, by his exhilarating system of morality, by the repetition of his figures of speech, his brilliant remarks and vivid descriptions ; but, after all, he has not too much of it, for if he possessed some of the right quality he would neglect these extraneous ornaments, unworthy of the Gospel, and preach naturally, forcibly, and like a Christian.

We never deceive people to benefit them, for knavery is a compound of wickedness and falsehood.