Luc de Clapiers
Luc de Clapiers
Luc de Clapiers, marquis de Vauvenargueswas a minor French writer, a moralist. He died at age 31, in broken health, having published the year prior—anonymously—a collection of essays and aphorisms with the encouragement of Voltaire, his friend. He first received public notice under his own name in 1797, and from 1857 on, his aphorisms became popular. In the history of French literature, his significance lies chiefly in his friendship with Voltaire...
NationalityFrench
ProfessionWriter
Date of Birth6 August 1715
CountryFrance
It is good to be firm by temperament and pliant by reflection.
It is of no use to possess a lively wit if it is not of the right proportion: the perfection of a clock is not to go fast, but to be accurate.
The thought of death deceives us; for it causes us to neglect to live.
Neither the gifts nor the blows of fortune equal those of nature.
We are forced to respect the gifts of nature, which study and fortune cannot give.
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.
Men crowd into honorable careers without other vocation than their vanity, or at best their love of fame.
It cannot be a vice in men to be sensible of their strength.
There does not exist a man sufficiently intelligent never to be tiresome.
Some authors regard morality in the same light as we regard modern architecture. Convenience is the first thing to be looked for.
Reason and emotion counsel and supplement each other. Whoever heeds only the one, and puts aside the other, recklessly deprives himself of a portion of the aid granted us for the regulation of our conduct.
It is unjust to exact that men shall do out of deference to our advice what they have no desire to do for themselves.
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.
The tempests of youth are mingled with days of brilliant sunshine.