JEAN DE LA BRUYERE

Two quite opposite qualities equally bias our minds - habits and novelty.

There is not in the world so toilsome a trade as the pursuit of fame; life concludes before you have so much as sketched your work.

The regeneration of society is the regeneration of society by individual education.

The wise person often shuns society for fear of being bored.

One seeks to make the loved one entirely happy, or, if that cannot be, entirely wretched.

A slave has but one master; an ambitious man has as many masters as there are people who may be useful in bettering his position.

We should keep silent about those in power; to speak well of them almost implies flattery; to speak ill of them while they are alive is dangerous, and when they are dead is cowardly.

The exact contrary of what is generally believed is often the truth.

The court is like a palace of marble; it's composed of people very hard and very polished.

All of our unhappiness comes from our inability to be alone.

The Opera is obviously the first draft of a fine spectacle; it suggests the idea of one.

The first day one is a guest, the second a burden, and the third a pest.

Making a book is a craft, like making a clock; it needs more than native wit to be an author.

Poverty may be the mother of crime, but lack of good sense is the father.

Out of difficulties grow miracles.

At the beginning and at the end of love, the two lovers are embarrassed to find themselves alone.

Liberality consists less in giving a great deal than in gifts well-timed.

If our life is unhappy it is painful to bear; if it is happy it is horrible to lose, So the one is pretty equal to the other.

It's motive alone which gives character to the actions of men.

The great gift of conversation lies less in displaying it ourselves than in drawing it out of others. He who leaves your company pleased with himself and his own cleverness is perfectly well pleased with you.

There are only three events in a man's life; birth, life, and death; he is not conscious of being born, he dies in pain, and he forgets to live.

Avoid lawsuits beyond all things; they pervert your conscience, impair your health, and dissipate your property.

It is fortunate to be of high birth, but it is no less so to be of such character that people do not care to know whether you are or are not.

There is no road too long to the man who advances deliberately and without undue haste; there are no honors too distant to the man who prepares himself for them with patience.

They that have lived a single day have lived an age.