Jean de la Bruyere
Jean de la Bruyere
Jean de La Bruyèrewas a French philosopher and moralist...
NationalityFrench
ProfessionPhilosopher
CountryFrance
flower men tree
It is very rare to find ground which produces nothing; if it is not covered with flowers, with fruit trees and grains, it produces briers and pines. It is the same with man; if he is not virtuous, he becomes vicious.
people deception knavery
We never deceive people to benefit them, for knavery is a compound of wickedness and falsehood.
death suffering moments
Death happens but once, yet we feel it every moment of our lives; it is worse to dread it than to suffer it.
resources conversation charm
The great charm of conversation consists less in the display of one's own wit and intelligence than in the power to draw forth the resources of others.
knowing world faces
All the world says of a coxcomb that he is a coxcomb; but no one dares to say so to his face, and he dies without knowing it.
passion wrinkles years
A coquette is one that is never to be persuaded out of the passion she has to please, nor out of a good opinion of her own beauty: time and years she regards as things that only wrinkle and decay other women, forgetting that age is written in the face, and that the same dress which became her when she was young now only makes her look older.
caprice decency
Caprice in women often infringes upon the rules of decency.
men dignity great-men
The nearer we approach great men, the clearer we see that they are men.
strong men garden
How many men are like trees, already strong and full grown, which are transplanted into some gardens, to the astonishment of those people who behold them in these fine spots, where they never saw them grow, and who neither know their beginning nor their progress!
news management journalism
The highest reach of a news-writer is an empty Reasoning on Policy, and vain Conjectures on the public Management.
men merit blockheads
A coxcomb is the blockhead's man of merit.
men vanity weakness
Men blush less for their crimes than for their weaknesses and vanity. [Fr., Les hommes rougissent moins de leur crimes que de leurs faiblesses et de leur vanite.]
want pleasure private-life
A prince wants only the pleasure of private life to complete his happiness.
evil design innocent
Dissimulation, even the most innocent in its nature, is ever productive of embarrassment; whether the design is evil or not artifice is always dangerous and almost inevitably disgraceful.