Luc de Clapiers, marquis de Vauvenargues Quotes

Men dissimulate their dearest, most constant, and most virtuous inclination from weakness and a fear of being condemned.

In order to achieve great things, we must live as though we were never going to die.

Are we surprised if a sick man cannot walk, or keep awake, or stand upright? Would it not be more surprising if he was the same man as when he was well? If we have a headache, or have slept badly, we are excused for telling incapable of work, and yet no one suspects us of always being lazy. Shall we deny a dying man the privilege we grant a man with a headache? And dare we assert that the man who lacks courage in his last agony never possessed virtue when he was well.

Ceux qui médisent toujours, nuisent rarement; ils méditent plus de mal qu'ils n'en peuvent faire.

As it is natural to believe many things without proof, so, despite all proof, is it natural to disbelieve others.

There does not exist a man sufficiently intelligent never to be tiresome.

La clarté est la bonne foi des philosophes

Lazy people are always looking for something to do.

Those who fear men love the laws.

Some authors regard morality in the same light as we regard modern architecture. Convenience is the first thing to be looked for.

Children are … encouraged to be imitators, a course to which they are already too much inclined. No one thinks of making them original, courageous, independent.

Our failings sometimes bind us to one another as closely as could virtue itself.

The favorites of fortune or of fame topple from their pedestals before our eyes without diverting us from ambition.

We are forced to respect the gifts of nature, which study and fortune cannot give.

Superficial knowledge … is hurtful to those who possess true genius; for it necessarily draws them away from their main object, wastes their industry over details and subjects foreign to their needs and natural talent, and lastly does not serve, as they flatter themselves, to prove the breadth of their mind. In all ages there have been men of very moderate intelligence who knew much, and so on the contrary, men of the highest intelligence who knew very little. Ignorance is not lack of intelligence, nor knowledge a proof of genius.