481 Quotes by Jean De La Bruyere
"When a work lifts your spirits and inspires bold and noble thoughts in you, do not look for any other standard to judge by: the work is good, the product of a master craftsman."
"The fool only is troublesome. A plan of sense perceives when he is agreeable or tiresome; he disappears the very minute before he would have been thought to have stayed too long."
"It is better to expose ourselves to ingratitude than to neglect our duty to the distressed."
"That man is good who does good to others; if he suffers on account of the good he does, he is very good; if he suffers at the hands of those to whom he has done good, then his goodness is so great that it could be enhanced only by greater sufferings; and if he should die at their hands, his virtue can go no further: it is heroic, it is perfect."
"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."
"A good saying often runs the risk of being thrown away when quoted as the speaker's own. [Fr., C'est souvent hasarder un bon mot et vouloir le perdre que de le donner pour sien.]"
"A man must be completely wanting in intelligence if he does not show it when actuated by love, malice, or necessity."
"It is a great misfortune neither to have enough wit to talk well nor enough judgment to be silent."