401 Quotes by Joseph Joubert

The ordinary true, or purely real, cannot be the object of the arts. Illusion on a ground of truth,--that is the secret of the fine arts.

Luckily, I never feel at one time more than half my pains.

Words, like glass, obscure when they do not aid vision.

To teach is to learn twice. About all some parents accomplish in life is to send a child to Harvard. The purpose of a liberal education is to make one's mind a pleasant place to spend one's leisure.

A few words worthy to be remembered suffice to give an idea of a great mind. There are single thoughts that contain the essence of a whole volume, single sentences that have the beauties of a large work, a simplicity so finished and so perfect that it equals in merit and in excellence a large and glorious composition.

The ways suited to confidence are familiar to me, but not those that are suited to familiarity.

The Bible remained for me a book of books, still divine - but divine in the sense that all great books are divine which teach men how to live righteously.

Antiquity! I like its ruins better than its reconstructions.

Illusion and wisdom combined are the charm of life and art.