Luc de Clapiers, marquis de Vauvenargues Quotes

If passion sometimes counsels greater boldness than does reflection, it gives more strength to execute it.

Most people grow old within a small circle of ideas, which they have not discovered for themselves. There are perhaps less wrong-minded people than thoughtless.

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

It cannot be a vice in men to be sensible of their strength.

Is it against justice or reason to love ourselves? And why is self-love always a vice?

The thought of death deceives us; for it causes us to neglect to live.

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

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.

We can love with all our hearts those in whom we recognize great faults. It would be impertinent to believe that perfection alone has the right to please us; sometimes our weaknesses attach us to each other as much as our virtues.

La patience est l’art d’espérer.

He who knows how to suffer everything can risk everything.

La foi est la consolation des misérables et la terreur des heureux.

The art of pleasing is the art of deception.

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.