Jean de la Bruyère (French: [ʒɑ̃ də la bʁyjɛʁ]; 16 August 1645 – 11 May 1696) was a French philosopher and moralist, who was noted for his satire.
Both as to high and low indifferently, men are prepossessed, charmed, fascinated by success; successful crimes are praised very much like virtue itself, and good fortune is not far from occupying the place of the whole cycle of virtues. It must be an atrocious act, a base and hateful deed, which success would not be able to justify.
The very essence of politeness seems to be to take care that by our words and actions we make other people pleased with us as well as with themselves.
I cannot forbid a person to marry several wives, for it does not contradict Scripture. MARTIN LUTHER, letter to Chancellor Gregory Brück, January 13, 1524 Marriage, it seems, confines every man to his proper rank.
High birth is a gift of fortune which should never challenge esteem towards those who receive it, since it costs them neither study nor labor.
The greatest part of mankind employ their first years to make their last miserable.
If poverty is the mother of all crimes, lack of intelligence is the father.
Profound ignorance makes a man dogmatic. The man who knows nothing thinks he is teaching others what he has just learned himself; the man who knows a great deal can't imagine that what he is saying is not common knowledge, and speaks more indifferently.
A person's worth in this world is estimated according to the value he puts on himself.
Life at court does not satisfy a man, but it keeps him from being satisfied with anything else.
We should laugh before being happy, for fear of dying without having laughed.
If women were by nature what they make themselves by art; if they were to lose suddenly all the freshness of their complexion, and their faces to become as fiery and as leaden as they make them with the red and the paint they besmear themselves with, they would consider themselves the most wretched creatures on earth.
We can recognize the dawn and the decline of love by the uneasiness we feel when alone together.
We should like those whom we love to receive all their happiness, or, if this were impossible, all their unhappiness from our hands.
Wit is the god of moments, but Genius is the god of ages.
For a long time visits among lovers and professions of love are kept up through habit, after their behavior has plainly proved that love no longer exists.
Life is a kind of sleep: old men sleep longest, nor begin to wake but when they are to die.
Genius and great abilities are often wanting; sometimes, only opportunities. Some deserve praise for what they have done; others for what they would have done.
We must laugh before we are happy, for fear we die before we laugh at all.
The wise person often shuns society for fear of being bored.
I take sanctuary in an honest mediocrity.