Jean Bruyere Quotations

Everything has been said, and we are more than seven thousand years of human thought too late

The pleasure of criticizing robs us of the pleasure of being moved by some very fine things.

There is a report that Piso is dead; it is a great loss; he was an honest man, who deserved to live longer; he was intelligent and agreeable, resolute and courageous, to be depended upon, generous and faithful.' Add: 'provided he is really dead'.

There are few finer excesses in the world than an excess of gratitude.

There are only two ways of getting on in the world either by one's own industry, or by the stupidity of others

Life is a tragedy for those who feel, and a comedy for those who think.

Making books is a skilled trade, like making clocks.

Liberality lies less in giving liberally than in the timeliness of the gift.

Liberality consists rather in giving reasonably than much

Let us not overstrain our talents, for if we do we shall do nothing with grace; a clown, whatever he may do, will never pass for a gentleman

Modesty is to merit, as shades to figures in a picture, giving it strength and beauty

It is a great misfortune to have the wit to speak, but not the sense when to remain silent.

We must laugh before we are happy for fear of dying without having laughed at all

When a book raises your spirit, and inspires you with noble and courageous feelings, seek for no other rule to judge the event by; it is good and made by a good workman

We seldom repent of speaking little, very often of speaking too much: a vulgar and trite maxim, which all the world knows and, but which all the world does not practice

We see men fall from high estate on account of the very faults through which they attained it

There is nothing of which men are so fond, and withal so careless, as life

Those who make the worst use of their time are the first to complain of its brevity

Between genius and talent there is the proportion of the whole to its part

The same vices that are gross and insupportable in others we do not notice in ourselves

A sanctimonious man is one who under an atheist king would be atheist

A man can keep a secret better than his own. A woman her own better than others.

A strict observer is one who would be an atheist under an atheistic king.

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

A person's worth in this world is estimated according to the value they put on themselves.

If you wish to be held in esteem, you must associate only with those who are esteemable

The majority of men devote the greater part of their lives to making their remaining years unhappy.

The giving is the hardest part; what does it cost to add a smile?