French philosopher and moralist (1645-1696)
A man of variable mind is not one man, but several men in one; he multiplies himself as often as he changes his taste and manners; he is not this minute what he was the last, and will not be the next what he is now; he is his own successor.
JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE
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"Of Mankind", Les Caractères
All confidence placed in another is dangerous if it is not perfect, for on almost all occasions we ought to tell everything or to conceal everything. We have already told too much of our secret, if one single circumstance is to be kept back.
JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE
"Of Society and of Conversation", Les Caractères
All the worth of some people lies in their name; upon a closer inspection it dwindles to nothing, but from a distance it deceives us.
JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE
"Of Personal Merit", Les Caractères
Banter is often a proof of want of intelligence.
JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE
"Of Society and of Conversation", Les Caractères
Criticism is often not a science; it is a craft, requiring more good health than wit, more hard work than talent, more habit than native genius. In the hands of a man who has read widely but lacks judgment, applied to certain subjects it can corrupt both its readers and the writer himself.
JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE
"Of Works of the Mind", Les Caractères
For a long time visits among lovers and professions of love are kept up through habit, after their behavior has plainly proved that love no longer exists.
JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE
"Of the Affections", Les Caractères
I am not surprised that there are gambling houses, like so many snares laid for human avarice; like abysses where many a man's money is engulfed and swallowed up without any hope of return; like frightful rocks against which the gamblers are thrown and perish.
JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE
"Of the Gifts of Fortune", Les Caractères
In all conditions of life a poor man is a near neighbor to an honest one, and a rich man is as little removed from a knave.
JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE
"Of the Gifts of Fortune", Les Caractères
It is fortunate to be of high birth, but it is no less so to be of such character that people do not care to know whether you are or are not.
JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE
"Of Personal Merit", Les Caractères
It is no more in our power to love always than it was not to love at all.
JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE
"Of the Affections", Les Caractères
Life is short and tedious, and is wholly spent in wishing; we trust to find rest and enjoyment at some future time, often at an age when our best blessings, youth and health, have already left us. When at last I that time has arrived, it surprises us in the midst of fresh desires; we have got no farther when we are attacked by a fever which kills us; if we had been cured, it would only have been to give us more time for other desires.
JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE
"Of Mankind", Les Caractères
Love begins with love ; and the warmest friendship cannot change even to the coldest love.
JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE
"Of the Affections", Les Caractères
No vice exists which does not pretend to be more or less like some virtue, and which does not take advantage of this assumed resemblance.
JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE
"Of the Affections", Les Caractères
The lives of heroes have enriched history, and history has adorned the actions of heroes ; and thus I cannot say whether the historians are more indebted to those who provided them with such noble materials, or those great men to their historians.
JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE
"Of Works of the Mind", Les Caractères
There are few wives so perfect as not to give their husbands at least once a day good reason to repent of ever having married, or at least of envying those who are unmarried.
JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE
"Of Women", Les Caractères
There is no excess in the world so commendable as excessive gratitude.
JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE
"Of the Affections", Les Caractères
Those who make the worst use of their time are the first to complain of its brevity.
JEAN DE LA BRUYERE
Les Caracteres
Time, which strengthens friendship, weakens love.
JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE
"Of the Affections", Les Caractères
We never deceive people to benefit them, for knavery is a compound of wickedness and falsehood.
JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE
"Of Mankind", Les Caractères
Women are at little trouble to express what they do not feel; but men are still at less to express what they do feel.
JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE
"Of Women", Les Caractères