Inspirational Quotations

Inspirational Quotes by Jean de La Bruyere (French Author)

Jean de La Bruyère (1645–96) was a French writer and one of the great moralists of French classicism. His only work, Les Caractères (1688,) encapsulates the psychological, social, and moral character of the French society of his time.

Not much is known about La Bruyère’s life. Born in Paris, he studied law at Orléans. He became one of the tutors to the Duke de Bourbon, grandson of the Prince de Condé, and remained in the Condé household as a librarian at Chantilly. He never married and died poor.

Les Caractères, fully Les Caractères de Théophraste, traduits du grec, avec les caractères ou les moeurs de ce siècle, (1688; The Characters of Theophrastus, Translated from the Greek, with the Characters or Manners of This Century, 1699,) comprises a treatise on the natural philosopher Theophrastus and La Bruyère’s translation of Theophrastus. It is then followed by 420 of La Bruyère’s reflections on the manners of his time.

Les Caractères portrays contemporary French dignitaries with masked names and unmasks the vanity and corruption of human behavior by satirizing Parisian society. Les Caractères was a particular favorite of David Hume and was widely admired by such writers as Gustave Flaubert, André Gide, and Marcel Proust.

More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Jean de La Bruyere

As long as men are liable to die and are desirous to live, a physician will be made fun of, but he will be well paid.
—Jean de La Bruyere
Topics: Doctors, Medicine

The sweetest of all sounds is that of the voice of the woman we love.
—Jean de La Bruyere
Topics: Conversation

An egotist will always speak of himself, either in praise or censure; but a modest man ever shuns making himself the subject of his conversation.
—Jean de La Bruyere
Topics: Egotism, Vanity, Modesty

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.
—Jean de La Bruyere
Topics: Opportunities, Opportunity

A vain man finds his account in speaking good or evil of himself.
—Jean de La Bruyere
Topics: Vanity

The fears of old age disturb us, yet how few attain it?
—Jean de La Bruyere
Topics: Old Age

How happy the station which every moment furnishes opportunities of doing good to thousands!—How dangerous that which every moment exposes to the injuring of millions.
—Jean de La Bruyere
Topics: Future, Goodness, The Future

The great slight the men of wit who have nothing but wit; the men of wit despise the great who have nothing but greatness; the good man pities them both, if with greatness or wit, they have not virtue.
—Jean de La Bruyere
Topics: Virtue

Modesty is to merit, as shades to figures in a picture, giving it strength and beauty.
—Jean de La Bruyere
Topics: Modesty

The exact contrary of what is generally believed is often the truth.
—Jean de La Bruyere
Topics: Truth

No man is so perfect, so necessary to his friends, as to give them no cause to miss him less.
—Jean de La Bruyere
Topics: Absence

There are certain people who so ardently and passionately desire a thing, that from dread of losing it they leave nothing undone to make them lose it.
—Jean de La Bruyere
Topics: Confidence

Liberality consists less in giving a great deal than in gifts well-timed.
—Jean de La Bruyere
Topics: Generosity

Logic is the art of convincing us of some truth.
—Jean de La Bruyere
Topics: Logic

Out of difficulties grow miracles.
—Jean de La Bruyere
Topics: Miracles, Difficulty

The slave has but one master, the ambitious man has as many as there are persons whose aid may contribute to the advancement of his fortunes.
—Jean de La Bruyere
Topics: Ambition

The pleasure of criticizing robs us of the pleasure of being moved by some very fine things.
—Jean de La Bruyere
Topics: Criticism

Modesty is to merit, what shade is to figures in a picture; it gives it strength and makes it stand out.
—Jean de La Bruyere
Topics: Modesty

It’s motive alone that gives character to the actions of men.
—Jean de La Bruyere
Topics: Character, Action

Generosity lies less in giving much than in giving at the right moment.
—Jean de La Bruyere
Topics: Generosity

After a spirit of discernment, the next rarest things in the world are diamonds and pearls.
—Jean de La Bruyere

Discourtesy does not spring merely from one bad quality, but from several—from foolish vanity, from ignorance of what is due to others, from indolence, from stupidity, from distraction of thought, from contempt of others, from jealousy.
—Jean de La Bruyere
Topics: Politeness

When a secret is revealed, it is the fault of the man who has entrusted it.
—Jean de La Bruyere
Topics: Secrets, Secrecy, Proverbs

I do not doubt but that genuine piety is the spring of peace of mind; it enables us to bear the sorrows of life, and lessens the pangs of death: the same cannot be said of irreligion.
—Jean de La Bruyere

Men blush less for their crimes, than for their weaknesses and vanity.
—Jean de La Bruyere
Topics: Vanity

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.
—Jean de La Bruyere
Topics: Fame

It is easier to enrich ourselves with a thousand virtues, than to correct ourselves of a single fault.
—Jean de La Bruyere
Topics: Reform, Virtue

Time makes friendship stronger, but love weaker.
—Jean de La Bruyere
Topics: Time, Time Management

A man of the world must seem to be what he wishes to be thought.
—Jean de La Bruyere
Topics: Wishes

The spendthrift robs his heirs the miser robs himself.
—Jean de La Bruyere
Topics: Misery, Money

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