Jean de La Bruyère Quotes

Some men speak one moment before they think; others tediously study everything they say, and in conversation bore us as painfully as was the travail of their mind; they are, as it were, made up of phrases and quaint expressions, whilst their gestures are as affected as their behaviour. They call themselves "purists," and do not venture to say the most trifling word not in use, however expressive it may be. Nothing comes from them worth remembering, nothing is spontaneous and unrestrained; they speak correctly, but they are very tiresome.

Entre le bon sens et le bon goût il y a la différence de la cause à son effet.

You may drive a dog off the King's armchair, and it will climb into the preacher's pulpit; he views the world unmoved, unembarrassed, unabashed.

La vie est une tragédie pour celui qui sent, et une comédie pour celui qui pense.

Ce grand malheur, de ne pouvoir etre seul.

Il faut rire avant que d'être heureux, de peur de mourir sans avoir ri.

Making a book is a craft, like making a clock; it needs more than native wit to be an author.

We can recognize the dawn and the decline of love by the uneasiness we feel when alone together.

Avoid lawsuits beyond all things; they pervert your conscience, impair your health and dissipate your property.

Tout l'esprit qui est au monde est inutile à celui qui n'en a point : il n'a nulles vues, et il est incapable de profiter de celles d'autrui.

A fool is always troublesome, a man of sense perceives when he pleases or is tiresome ; he goes away the very minute before it might have been thought he stayed too long.

The people in Paris commonly ape the court, but they do not always know how to imitate it; they by no means resemble it in those agreeable and flattering outward civilities with which some courtiers, and particularly the ladies, affably treat a man of merit, who possesses nothing but merit.

All kinds of music are not suited to praise God and to be heard in the sanctuary; all methods of philosophy are not fit for discoursing worthily of God, His power, the principles of His operations, and His mysteries.

«Сладострастие – это изъян сердца или, быть может, натуры; кокетство – порок души. Сладострастница внушает страх, кокетка – ненависть. Если оба эти свойства объединяются в одной женщине, получается характер, наигнуснейший из возможных.»

Жан де Лабрюйер «Характеры или нравы нынешнего века»

Il n'y a au monde que deux manières de s'élever, ou par sa propre industrie, ou par l'imbécillité des autres.