Luc de Clapiers, marquis de Vauvenargues Quotes

Necessity relieves us from the embarrassment of choice.

Magnanimity owes no account to prudence of its motives.

Hope deceives more men than cunning does.

La nécessité nous délivre de l'embarras du choix.

With kings, nations, and private individuals, the strongest assume to themselves rights over the weakest, and the same rule is followed by animals, by matter, by the elements, so that everything is performed in the universe by violence. And that order which we blame with some appearance of justice is the most universal, most absolute, most unchangeable, and most ancient law of nature.

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

It is good to be firm by temperament and pliant by reflection.

It is proof of a narrow mind when things worthy of esteem are distinguished from things worthy of love. Great minds naturally love whatever is worthy of their esteem.

Patience is the art of hoping.

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

Men crowd into honorable careers without other vocation than their vanity, or at best their love of fame.

Great men are sometimes so even in small things.

You can purchase the mind of Pascal for a crown. Pleasures even cheaper are sold to those who give themselves up to them. It is only luxuries and objects of caprice that are rare and difficult to obtain; unfortunately they are the only things that touch the curiosity and taste of ordinary men.

The generality of men are so bound within the sphere of their circumstances that they have not even the courage to get out of them through their ideas, and if we see a few whom, in a way, speculation over great things makes incapable of mean ones, we find still more with whom the practice of small things takes away the feeling for great ones.

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