Jean de La Bruyère - Mind Quotes

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Menippus is a bird decked in various feathers which are not his. He neither says nor feels anything, but repeats the feelings and sayings of others; it is so natural for him to make use of other people's minds that he is the first deceived by it, and often believes he speaks his own mind or expresses his own thoughts when he is but the echo of some man he just parted with.

Jean de La Bruyère
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.

Jean de La Bruyère
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?

Jean de La Bruyère
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 honor, and their conscience; this is rather too dear, and there is nothing to be made out of such a bargain.

Jean de La Bruyère
One mark of a second-rate mind is to be always telling stories.

Jean de La Bruyère
The mind, like all other things, will become impaired, the sciences are its food - they nourish, but at the same time they consume it.

Jean de La Bruyère