Authors
Topics
Lists
Pictures
Resources
More about Jean de La Bruyère
Jean de La Bruyère Quotes
90 Sourced Quotes
Source
Report...
One loves wholly but once — the first time: loves that follow are less involuntary.
Jean de La Bruyère
Source
Report...
The Opera is obviously the first draft of a fine spectacle; it suggests the idea of one.
Jean de La Bruyère
Source
Report...
A pious man is one who would be an atheist if the king were.
Jean de La Bruyère
Source
Report...
If it be true that in showing pity and compassion we think of ourselves, because we fear to be one day or another in the same circumstances as those unfortunate people for whom we feel, why are the latter so sparingly relieved by us of their condition?
Jean de La Bruyère
Source
Report...
Time, which strengthens friendship, weakens love.
Jean de La Bruyère
Source
Report...
It is often shorter and better to yield to others than to endeavor to compel others to adjust themselves to us.
Jean de La Bruyère
Source
Report...
It is a great misfortune not to have enough wit to speak well, or not enough judgment to keep silent.
Jean de La Bruyère
Source
Report...
So long as people are subject to disease and death, they will run after physicians, however much they may deride them.
Jean de La Bruyère
Source
Report...
Grief at the absence of a loved one is happiness compared to life with a person one hates.
Jean de La Bruyère
Source
Report...
A Beautiful woman with the qualities of a noble man is the most perfect thing in nature: we find in her all the merits of both sexes.
Jean de La Bruyère
Source
Report...
The people have little intelligence, the great no heart…if I had to choose I should have no hesitation: I would be of the people.
Jean de La Bruyère
Source
Report...
We love well only once, the first time. The loves which follow are less involuntary.
Jean de La Bruyère
Source
Report...
It does not take twenty years for men to change their opinions of things which had seemed to them the truest, and most certain.
Jean de La Bruyère
Source
Report...
The town is divided into various groups, which form so many little states, each with its own laws and customs, its jargon and its jokes.
Jean de La Bruyère
Source
Report...
The giving is the hardest part; what does it cost to add a smile?
Jean de La Bruyère
Source
Report...
Outward simplicity befits ordinary men, like a garment made to measure for them; but it serves as an adornment to those who have filled their lives with great deeds.
Jean de La Bruyère
Source
Report...
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.
Jean de La Bruyère
Source
Report...
There is no better excess in the world than the excess of gratitude.
Jean de La Bruyère
Source
Report...
For a woman to be at once a coquette and a bigot is more than the meekest of husbands can bear: women should mercifully choose between the two.
Jean de La Bruyère
Source
Report...
We come too late to say anything which has not been said already.
Jean de La Bruyère
Source
Report...
Venus was the daughter of the waves. She gave birth to Love: we can expect nothing but tempest from a daughter of the sea.
Jean de La Bruyère
Source
Report...
A heap of epithets is poor praise: the praise lies in the facts, and in the way of telling them.
Jean de La Bruyère
Source
Report...
Between good sense and good taste there lies the difference between a cause and its effect.
Jean de La Bruyère
Source
Report...
When the populace is excited, one cannot conceive how calm can be restored; and when it is peaceful, one cannot see how calm can be disturbed.
Jean de La Bruyère
Source
Report...
No man is so perfect, so necessary to his friends, as to give them no cause to miss him less.
Jean de La Bruyère
Source
Report...
The art of conversation consists less in showing one's own wit than in giving opportunity for the display of the wit of others.
Jean de La Bruyère
Source
Report...
There are several ways to speak: to speak well, to speak easily, to speak justly, and to speak at the right moment.
Jean de La Bruyère
Source
Report...
Most men make use of the first part of their life to render the last part miserable.
Jean de La Bruyère
Source
Report...
We can recognize the dawn and the decline of love by the uneasiness we feel when alone together.
Jean de La Bruyère
Source
Report...
Women run to extremes; they are either better or worse than men.
Jean de La Bruyère
1
2
3
Quote of the day
Remember I'm an artist. And you know what that means in a court of law. Next worst to an actress
Joyce Cary
Jean de La Bruyère
Creative Commons
Born:
August 16, 1645
Died:
May 11, 1696
(aged 50)
Bio:
Jean de La Bruyère was a French philosopher and moralist.
Known for:
Les Caracteres (1688)
Most used words:
men
love
speak
god
life
women
people
time
death
wit
woman
mind
live
birth
feel
Jean de La Bruyère on Wikipedia
Jean de La Bruyère works on Gutenberg Project
Jean de La Bruyère works on Wikisource
Suggest an edit or a new quote
Jean de La Bruyère Quotes
Jean de La Bruyère Short Quotes
French Philosopher Quotes
Philosopher Quotes
17th-century Philosopher Quotes
Related Authors
François de La Rochefoucauld
Author
Jean de La Fontaine
French Poet
Theophrastus
Greek Philosopher
Featured Authors
Lists
Predictions that didn't happen
If it's on the Internet it must be true
Remarkable Last Words (or Near-Last Words)
Picture Quotes
Confucius
Philip James Bailey
Eleanor Roosevelt
Letitia Elizabeth Landon
Popular Topics
life
love
nature
time
god
power
human
mind
work
art
heart
thought
men
day
×
Lib Quotes