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.
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.
When we are dead we are praised by those who survive us, though we frequently have no other merit than that of being no longer alive.
Those who make the worst use of their time are the first to complain of its shortness.
At the beginning and at the end of love, the two lovers are embarrassed to find themselves alone.
There are some men who turn a deaf ear to reason and good advice, and willfully go wrong for fear of being controlled.
Generosity lies less in giving much than in giving at the right moment.
It is motive alone that gives real value to the actions of men, and disinterestedness puts the cap to it.
There are some sordid minds, formed of slime and filth, to whom interest and gain are what glory and virtue are to superior souls; they feel no other pleasure but to acquire money.
Men regret their life has been ill-spent, but this does not always induce them to make a better use of the time they have yet to live.
The spendthrift robs his heirs the miser robs himself.
A man is rich whose income is larger than his expenses, and he is poor if his expenses are greater than his income.
A man can deceive a woman by his sham attachment to her provided he does not have a real attachment elsewhere.
Men are the cause of women not loving one another. [Fr. , Les hommes sont la cause que les femmes ne s'aiment point. ]
Criticism is as often a trade as a science, requiring, as it does, more health than wit, more labour than capacity, more practice than genius.
A man in health questions whether there is a God, and he also doubts whether it be a sin to have intercourse with a woman, who is at liberty to refuse ; but when he falls ill, or when his mistress is with child, she is discarded, and he believes in God.
We must laugh before we are happy, for fear we die before we laugh at all.
Even the best intentioned of great men need a few scoundrels around them; there are some things you cannot ask an honest ma to do.
What can be more discouraging to a man than to doubt if his soul be material, like a stone or a reptile, and subject to corruption like the vilest creatures? And does it not prove much more strength of mind and grandeur to be able to conceive the idea of a Being superior to all other beings, by whom and for whom all things were made ; of a Being absolutely perfect and pure, without beginning or end, of whom our soul is the image, and of whom, if I may say so, it is a part, because it is spiritual and immortal?
He who will not listen to any advice, nor be corrected in his writings, is a rank pedant.
Let us not envy a certain class of men for their enormous riches; they have paid such an equivalent for them that it would not suit us; they have given for them their peace of mind, their health, their honour, and their conscience; this is rather too dear, and there is nothing to be made out of such a bargain.