Jean de la Bruyere Quotations | Page 5

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 great misfortune not to possess sufficient wit to speak well, nor sufficient judgment to keep silent.

Life is short, if we are only said to live when we enjoy ourselves; and if we were merely to count up the hours we spent agreeably, a great number of years would hardly make up a life of a few months.

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.

A faithless woman, if known to be such by the person concerned, is but faithless ; if she is believed faithful, she is treacherous.

To how many girls has a great beauty been of no other use but to make them expect a large fortune!

Children are overbearing, supercilious, passionate, envious, inquisitive, egotistical, idle, fickle, timid, intemperate, liars, and dissemblers; they laugh and weep easily, are excessive in their joys and sorrows, and that about the most trifling objects; they bear no pain, but like to inflict it on others; already they are men.

The most accomplished literary work would be reduced to nothing by carping criticism, if the author would listen to all critics and allow every one to erase the passage which pleases him the least.