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Dissimulation, Even The Most Innocent In Its Nature, Is Ever Productive Of Embarrassment; Whether The Design Is Evil Or Not Artifice Is Always Dangerous And Almost Inevitably Disgraceful.

-Jean De La Bruyere

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Dissimulation, Even The Most

Jean De La Bruyere

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Dissimulation, Even The Most Innocent In Its Nature, Is Ever Productive Of Embarrassment; Whether The Design Is Evil Or Not Artifice Is Always Dangerous And Almost Inevitably Disgraceful.

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Children Are Contemptuous, Haughty, Irritable, Envious, Sneaky, Selfish, Lazy, Flighty, Timid, Liars And Hypocrites, Quick To Laugh And Cry, Extreme In Expressing Joy And Sorrow, Especially About Trifles, They'll Do Anything To Avoid Pain But They Enjoy Inflicting It: Little Men Already.

Languages Are The Keys Of Science.

Jesting, Often, Only Proves A Want Of Intellect. [fr., La Moquerie Est Souvent Une Indigence D'esprit.]

We Can Recognize The Dawn And The Decline Of Love By The Uneasiness We Feel When Alone Together.

No Man Is So Perfect, So Necessary To His Friends As To Give Them No Cause To Miss Him Less.

An Egotist Will Always Speak Of Himself, Either In Praise Or In Censure, But A Modest Man Ever Shuns Making Himself The Subject Of His Conversation.

Extremes Are Vicious, And Proceed From Men; Compensation Is Just, And Proceeds From God.

You Think Him To Be Your Dupe; If He Feigns To Be So Who Is The Greater Dupe, He Or You?

When A Secret Is Revealed, It Is The Fault Of The Man Who Confided It.

There Is What Is Called The Highway To Posts And Honor, And There Is A Cross And By Way, Which Is Much The Shortest.

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.]

How Happy The Station Which Every Moment Furnishes Opportunities Of Doing Good To Thousands! How Dangerous That Which Every Moment Exposes To The Injuring Of Millions!

The Finest And Most Beautiful Ideas On Morals And Manners Have Been Swept Away Before Our Times, And Nothing Is Left For Us But To Glean After The Ancients And The Ablest Amongst The Moderns.

If Some Persons Died, And Others Did Not Die, Death Would Be A Terrible Affliction.

I Cannot Forbid A Person To Marry Several Wives, For It Does Not Contradict Scripture. Martin Luther, Letter To Chancellor Gregory Brück, January 13, 1524 Marriage, It Seems, Confines Every Man To His Proper Rank.

A Man Who Has Schemed For Some Time Can No Longer Do Without It; All Other Ways Of Living Are To Him Dull And Insipid.

The Greatest Part Of Mankind Employ Their First Years To Make Their Last Miserable.

A Dogmatic Tone Is Generally Inspired By Abysmal Ignorance. The Man Who Knows Nothing Thinks He Is Informing Others Of Something Which He Has That Moment Learnt; The Man Who Knows A Great Deal Can Scarcely Believe That People Are Ignorant Of What He Is Telling Them, And Speaks More Diffidently.

Born Merely For The Purpose Of Digestion.

A Man Who Knows How To Make Good Bargains Or Finds His Money Increase In His Coffers, Thinks Presently That He Has A Good Deal Of Brains And Is Almost Fit To Be A Statesman.

There Is Nothing Men Are So Anxious To Keep, And Yet Are So Careless About, As Life.

A Vain Man Finds It Wise To Speak Good Or Ill Of Himself; A Modest Man Does Not Talk Of Himself.

Physiognomy Is Not A Guide That Has Been Given Us By Which To Judge Of The Character Of Men: It May Only Serve Us For Conjecture. [fr., La Physionomie N'est Pas Une Regle Qui Nous Soit Donnee Pour Juger Des Hommes; Elle Nous Peut Servir De Conjecture.]

The Very Impossibility Which I Find To Prove That God Is Not, Discovers To Me His Existence.

The Nearer We Come To Great Men The More Clearly We See That They Are Only Men. They Rarely Seem Great To Their Valets.

A Well-born Man Is Fortunate, But So Is The Man About Whom People No Longer Ask, 'is He Well-born?'

If Women Were By Nature What They Make Themselves By Art; If They Were To Lose Suddenly All The Freshness Of Their Complexion, And Their Faces To Become As Fiery And As Leaden As They Make Them With The Red And The Paint They Besmear Themselves With, They Would Consider Themselves The Most Wretched Creatures On Earth.

A Coxcomb Is One Whom Simpletons Believe To Be A Man Of Merit.

The Great Slight The Men Of Wit, Who Have Nothing But Wit; The Men Of Wit Despise The Great, Who Have Nothing But Greatness; The Good Man Pities Them Both, If With Greatness Or Wit They Have Not Virtue.

The Best Way To Get On In The World Is To Make People Believe It's To Their Advantage To Help You.

We Dread Old Age, Which Are Not Sure Of Being Able To Attain. [fr., L'on Craint La Vieillesse, Que L'on N'est Pas Sur De Pouvoir Atteindre.]

Discretion Is The Perfection Of Reason, And A Guide To Us In All The Duties Of Life. It Is Only Found In Men Of Sound Sense And Understanding.

One Mark Of A Second-rate Mind Is To Be Always Telling Stories.

A Heap Of Epithets Is Poor Praise: The Praise Lies In The Facts, And In The Way Of Telling Them.

We Perceive When Love Begins And When It Declines By Our Embarrassment When Alone Together.

Sad Valentines Day

Between Good Sense And Good Taste There Lies The Difference Between A Cause And Its Effect.

We Hope To Grow Old And We Dread Old Age; That Is To Say, We Love Life And We Flee From Death.

Days, Months, Years Fly Away, And Irrecoverably Sink In The Abyss Of Time.

We Never Love With All Our Heart And All Our Soul But Once, And That Is The First Time.

The Great Gift Of Conversation Lies Less In Displaying It Ourselves Than In Drawing It Out Of Others. He Who Leaves Your Company Pleased With Himself And His Own Cleverness Is Perfectly Well Pleased With You.

The Shortest And Best Way To Make Your Fortune Is To Let People See Clearly That It Is In Their Interest To Promote Yours.

Nothing Keeps Longer Than A Middling Fortune, And Nothing Melts Away Sooner Than A Large One.

There Are But Three Events Which Concern Man: Birth, Life And Death. They Are Unconscious Of Their Birth, They Suffer When They Die, And They Neglect To Live.

Birth Life And Death

The Art Of Conversation Consists Far Less In Displaying Much Wit Oneself Than In Helping Others To Be Witty: The Man Who Leaves Your Company Pleased With Himself And His Own Wit Is Very Well Pleased With You.

The Rarest Things In The World, Next To A Spirit Of Discernment, Are Diamonds And Pearls. [fr., Apres L'esprit De Discernement, Ce Qu'il Y A Au Monde De Plus Rare, Ce Sont Les Diamants Et Les Perles.]

From Time To Time There Appear On The Face Of The Earth Men Of Rare And Consummate Excellence, Who Dazzle Us By Their Virtue, And Whose Outstanding Qualities Shed A Stupendous Light. Like Those Extraordinary Stars Of Whose Origins We Are Ignorant, And Of Whose Fate, Once They Have Vanished, We Know Even Less, Such Men Have Neither Forebears Nor Descendants: They Are The Whole Of Their Race.

We Should Laugh Before Being Happy, For Fear Of Dying Without Having Laughed.

To Delay Is Injustice.

Procrastination

False Modesty Is The Refinement Of Vanity. It Is A Lie.

Rarely Do They Appear Great Before Their Valets.

Grief That Is Dazed And Speechless Is Out Of Fashion: The Modern Woman Mourns Her Husband Loudly And Tells You The Whole Story Of His Death, Which Distresses Her So Much That She Forgets Not The Slightest Detail About It.

Both As To High And Low Indifferently, Men Are Prepossessed, Charmed, Fascinated By Success; Successful Crimes Are Praised Very Much Like Virtue Itself, And Good Fortune Is Not Far From Occupying The Place Of The Whole Cycle Of Virtues. It Must Be An Atrocious Act, A Base And Hateful Deed, Which Success Would Not Be Able To Justify.

False Glory Is The Rock Of Vanity; It Seduces Men To Affect Esteem By Things Which They Indeed Possess, But Which Are Frivolous, And Which For A Man To Value Himself On Would Be A Scandalous Error.

During The Course Of Our Life We Now And Then Enjoy Some Pleasures So Inviting, And Have Some Encounters Of So Tender A Nature, That Though They Are Forbidden, It Is But Natural To Wish That They Were At Least Allowable. Nothing Can Be More Delightful, Except It Be To Abandon Them For Virtue's Sake.

Favor Exalts A Man Above His Equals, But His Dismissal From That Favor Places Him Below Them.

Love Receives Its Death-wound From Aversion, And Forgetfulness Buries It.

Every Hour In Itself, As It Respects Us In Particular, Is The Only One We Can Call Our Own.

Life At Court Does Not Satisfy A Man, But It Keeps Him From Being Satisfied With Anything Else.

Rarely Do They Appear Great Before Their Valets. [fr., Rarement Ils Sont Grands Vis-a-vis De Leur Valets-de-chambre.]

It Is The Glory And Merit Of Some Men To Write Well And Of Others Not To Write At All.

A Man Of The World Must Seem To Be What He Wishes To Be Thought.

A Simple Garb Is The Proper Costume Of The Vulgar; It Is Cut For Them, And Exactly Suits Their Measure, But It Is An Ornament For Those Who Have Filled Up Their Lives With Great Deeds. I Liken Them To Beauty In Dishabille, But More Bewitching On That Account.

A Great Mind Is Above Insults, Injustice, Grief, And Raillery, And Would Be Invulnerable Were It Not Open To Compassion.

In Art Them Is A Point Of Perfection, As Of Goodness Or Maturity In Nature; He Who Is Able To Perceive It, And Who Loves It, Has Perfect Taste; He Who Does Not Feel It, Or Loves On This Side Or That, Has An Imperfect Taste.

If It Be True That A Man Is Rich Who Wants Nothing, A Wise Man Is A Very Rich Man.

There Are Only Two Ways By Which To Rise In This World, Either By One's Own Industry Or By The Stupidity Of Others.

Most Men Spend The Best Part Of Their Lives Making The Remaining Part Wretched.

The State Not Seldom Tolerates A Comparatively Great Evil To Keep Out Millions Of Lesser Ills And Inconveniences Which Otherwise Would Be Inevitable And Without Remedy.

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.

The Events We Most Desire Do Not Happen; Or, If They Do, It Is Neither In The Time Nor In The Circumstances When They Would Have Given Us Extreme Pleasure.

There Are But Two Ways Of Rising In The World: Either By One's Own Industry Or Profiting By The Foolishness Of Others. [fr., Il N'y A Au Monde Que Deux Manieres De S'elever, Ou Par Sa Propre Industrie, Ou Par L'imbecilite Des Autres.]

A Prince Wants Only The Pleasure Of Private Life To Complete His Happiness.

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.

We Are More Sociable, And Get On Better With People By The Heart Than The Intellect.

Manners Carry The World For The Moment, Character For All Time.

It Is Virtue Which Should Determine Us In The Choice Of Our Friends, Without Inquiring Into Their Good Or Evil Fortune.

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.

It Is Weakness Which Makes Us Hate An Enemy And Seek Revenge, And It Is Idleness That Pacifies Us And Causes Us To Neglect It.

To Give Awkwardly Is Churlishness. The Most Difficult Part Is To Give, Then Why Not Add A Smile?

Eloquence May Be Found In Conversations And In All Kinds Of Writings; It Is Rarely Found When Looked For, And Sometimes Discovered Where It Is Least Expected.

Foolish Jokers Are Thick On The Ground, And It Rains Insects Of That Sort Everywhere. A Good Joker Is A Rarity; Even A Man Who Is Such By Nature Finds It Hard To Sustain The Part For Long; It Seldom Happens That The Man Who Makes Us Laugh Wins Our Esteem.

Those Who Make The Worst Use Of Their Time Are The First To Complain Of Its Shortness.

Life Is Too Short

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.

One Should Never Risk A Joke, Even Of The Mildest And Most Unexceptional Charters, Except Among People Of Culture And Wit.

Eloquence Is To The Sublime What The Whole Is To The Part.

To What Excesses Do Men Rush For The Sake Of Religion, Of Whose Truth They Are So Little Persuaded, And To Whose Precepts They Pay So Little Regard!

The Same Amount Of Pride Which Makes A Man Treat Haughtily His Inferiors, Makes Him Cringe Servilely; To Those Above Him.

The News-writer Lies Down At Night In Great Tranquillity, Upon A Piece Of News Which Corrupts Before Morning, And Which He Is Obliged To Throw Away As Soon As He Awakes.

Out Of Difficulties Grow Miracles.

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.

There Exist Some Evils So Terrible And Some Misfortunes So Horrible That We Dare Not Think Of Them, Whilst Their Very Aspect Makes Us Shudder; But If They Happen To Fall On Us, We Find Ourselves Stronger Than We Imagined, We Grapple With Our Ill Luck, And Behave Better Than We Expected We Should.

When, After Having Read A Work, Loftier Thoughts Arise In Your Mind And Noble And Heartfelt Feelings Animate You, Do Not Look For Any Other Rule To Judge It By; It Is Fine And Written In A Masterly Manner.

The Sublime Only Paints The True, And That Too In Noble Objects; It Paints It In All Its Phases, Its Cause And Its Effect; It Is The Most Worthy Expression Or Image Of This Truth. Ordinary Minds Cannot Find Out The Exact Expression, And Use Synonymes.

When We Are Dead We Are Praised By Those Who Survive Us, Though We Frequently Have No Other Merit Than That Of Being No Longer Alive.

As A Man Falls Out Of Favour And His Wealth Declines, We Discover For The First Time The Ridiculous Aspects Of His Character, Which Were Always There But Which Wealth And Favour Had Concealed.

There Are Certain Things In Which Mediocrity Is Intolerable: Poetry, Music, Painting, Public Eloquence. What Torture It Is To Hear A Frigid Speech Being Pompously Declaimed, Or Second-rate Verse Spoken With All A Bad Poet's Bombast!

As Long As Men Are Liable To Die And Are Desirous To Live, A Physician Will Be Made Fun Of, But He Will Be Well Paid.

The Finest Pleasure Is Kindness To Others.

Banter Is Often A Proof Of Want Of Intelligence.

One Seeks To Make The Loved One Entirely Happy, Or, If That Cannot Be, Entirely Wretched.

There Are Certain Things In Which Mediocrity Is Not To Be Endured, Such As Poetry, Music, Painting, Public Speaking.

Public Speaking

One Faithful Friend Is Enough For A Man's Self, 'tis Much To Meet With Such An One, Yet We Can't Have Too Many For The Sake Of Others.

False Modesty Is The Masterpiece Of Vanity: Showing The Vain Man In Such An Illusory Light That He Appears In The Reputation Of The Virtue Quite Opposite To The Vice Which Constitutes His Real Character; It Is A Deceit.

A Man's Worth Is Estimated In This World According To His Conduct.

Cheats Easily Believe Others As Bad As Themselves; There Is No Deceiving Them, Nor Do They Long Deceive.

There Are Some Who Speak One Moment Before They Think

Children Have Neither Past Nor Future; And That Which Seldom Happens To Us, They Rejoice In The Present. [fr., Les Enfants N'ont Ni Passe Ni Avenir; Et, Ce Qui Ne Nous Arrive Guere, Ils Jouissent Du Present.]

When A Plain-looking Woman Is Loved, It Is Certain To Be Very Passionately ; For Either Her Influence On Her Lover Is Irresistible, Or She Has Some Secret And More Irresistible Charms Than Those Of Beauty.

In Friendship We Only See Those Faults Which May Be Prejudicial To Our Friends. In Love We See No Faults But Those By Which We Suffer Ourselves.

How Sweet, How Passing Sweet, Is Solitude!

He Who Will Not Listen To Any Advice, Nor Be Corrected In His Writings, Is A Rank Pedant.

To Forget Someone Means To Think Of Him.

Great Things Only Require To Be Simply Told, For They Are Spoiled By Emphasis; But Little Things Should Be Clothed In Lofty Language, As They Are Only Kept Up By Expression, Tone Of Voice, And Style Of Delivery.

To Make A Book Is As Much A Trade As To Make A Clock; Something More Than Intelligence Is Required To Become An Author.

A Look Of Intelligence Is What Regularity Of Features Is To Women: It Is A Styule Of Beauty To Which The Most Vain May Aspire. [fr., L'air Spirituel Est Dans Les Hommes Ce Que La Regularite Des Traits Est Dans Les Femmes: C'est Le Genre De Beaute Ou Les Plus Vains Puissent Aspirer.]

Most Men Employ The First Part Of Life To Make The Other Part Miserable. [fr., La Plupart Des Hommes Emploient La Premiere Part Vie A Rendre L'autre Miserable.]

Time Makes Friendship Stronger, But Love Weaker.

We Never Deceive People To Benefit Them, For Knavery Is A Compound Of Wickedness And Falsehood.

A Blockhead Cannot Come In, Nor Go Away, Nor Sit, Nor Rise, Nor Stand, Like A Man Of Sense.

We All Covet Wealth, But Not Its Perils.

A Man Can Deceive A Woman By His Sham Attachment To Her Provided He Does Not Have A Real Attachment Elsewhere.

We Are Valued In This World At The Rate We Desire To Be Valued.

Love Has This In Common With Scruples, That It Becomes Embittered By The Reflections And The Thoughts That Beset Us To Free Ourselves.

A Mediocre Mind Thinks It Writes Divinely; A Good Mind Thinks It Writes Reasonably.

A Coquette Is One That Is Never To Be Persuaded Out Of The Passion She Has To Please, Nor Out Of A Good Opinion Of Her Own Beauty: Time And Years She Regards As Things That Only Wrinkle And Decay Other Women, Forgetting That Age Is Written In The Face, And That The Same Dress Which Became Her When She Was Young Now Only Makes Her Look Older.

He Who Excels In His Art So As To Carry It To The Utmost Height Of Perfection Of Which It Is Capable May Be Said In Some Measure To Go Beyond It: His Transcendent Productions Admit Of No Appellations.

We Should Only Endeavour To Think And Speak Correctly Ourselves, Without Wishing To Bring Others Over To Our Taste And Opinions.

A Man Reveals His Character Even In The Simplest Things He Does.

A Man Who Knows The Court Is Master Of His Gestures, Of His Eyes And Of His Face; He Is Profound, Impenetratable; He Dissimulates Bad Offices, Smiles At His Enemies, Controls His Irritation, Disguises His Passions, Belies His Heartm Speaks And Acts Against His Feelings.

It Is A Great Misfortune Neither To Have Enough Wit To Talk Well Nor Enough Judgment To Be Silent.

The Favor Of Princes Does Not Preclude The Existence Of Merit, And Yet Does Not Prove That It Exists. [fr., La Faveur Des Princes N'exclut Pas Le Merite, Et Ne Le Suppose Pas Aussi.]

A Man Unattached And Without Wife, If He Have Any Genius At All, May Raise Himself Above His Original Position, May Mingle With The World Of Fashion, And Hold Himself On A Level With The Highest; This Is Less Easy For Him Who Is Engaged; It Seems As If Marriage Put The Whole World In Their Proper Rank.

Cunning Is None Of The Best Nor Worst Qualities; It Floats Between Virtue And Vice; There Is Scarce Any Exigence Where It May Not, And Perhaps Ought Not To Be Supplied By Prudence.

High Birth Is A Gift Of Fortune Which Should Never Challenge Esteem Towards Those Who Receive It, Since It Costs Them Neither Study Nor Labor.

Jesting Is Often Only Indigence Of Intellect.

Two Persons Cannot Long Be Friends If They Cannot Forgive Each Other's Little Failings.

Children Are Overbearing, Supercilious, Passionate, Envious, Inquisitive, Egotistical, Idle, Fickle, Timid, Intemperate, Liars, And Dissemblers; They Laugh And Weep Easily, Are Excessive In Their Joys And Sorrows, And That About The Most Trifling Objects; They Bear No Pain, But Like To Inflict It On Others; Already They Are Men.

A Man Must Have Very Eminent Qualities To Hold His Own Without Being Polite.

Every Man Is Valued In This World As He Shows By His Conduct That He Wishes To Be Valued.

A Wise Man Neither Suffers Himself To Be Governed, Nor Attempts To Govern Others.

A Faithless Woman, If Known To Be Such By The Person Concerned, Is But Faithless; If She Is Believed Faithful, She Is Treacherous.

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.

To Be Among People One Loves, That's Sufficient; To Dream, To Speak To Them, To Be Silent Among Them, To Think Of Indifferent Things; But Among Them, Everything Is Equal.

Men Fall From Great Fortune Because Of The Same Shortcomings That Led To Their Rise.

Men Make The Best Friends.

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.

As Riches And Honor Forsake A Man, We Discover Him To Be A Fool, But Nobody Could Find It Out In His Prosperity.

A Good Author, And One Who Writes Carefully, Often Discovers That The Expression Of Which He Has Been In Search Without Being Able To Discover It, And Which He Has At Last Found, Is That Which Was The Most Simple, The Most Natural, And Which Seems As If It Ought To Have Presented Itself At Once, Without Effort, To The Mind.

Misers Are Neither Relations, Nor Friends, Nor Citizens, Nor Christians, Nor Perhaps Even Human Beings.

Piety With Some People, But Especially With Women, Is Either A Passion, Or An Infirmity Of Age, Or A Fashion Which Must Be Followed.

Profound Ignorance Makes A Man Dogmatic. The Man Who Knows Nothing Thinks He Is Teaching Others What He Has Just Learned Himself; The Man Who Knows A Great Deal Can't Imagine That What He Is Saying Is Not Common Knowledge, And Speaks More Indifferently.

He Who Only Writes To Suit The Taste Of The Age, Considers Himself More Than His Writings. We Should Always Aim At Perfection, And Then Posterity Will Do Us That Justice Which Sometimes Our Contemporaries Refuse Us.

I Do Not Doubt But That Genuine Piety Is The Spring Of Peace Of Mind; It Enables Us To Bear The Sorrows Of Life, And Lessens The Pangs Of Death: The Same Cannot Be Said Of Hypocrisy.

There Are Three Great Events In Our Lives: Birth, Life And Death. Of Birth We Have No Conscience; With Death, We Suffer; And, Concerning Life, We Forget To Live It.

Birth Life And Death

The Most Accomplished Literary Work Would Be Reduced To Nothing By Carping Criticism, If The Author Would Listen To All Critics And Allow Every One To Erase The Passage Which Pleases Him The Least.

The Court Is Like A Palace Built Of Marble; I Mean That It Is Made Up Of Very Hard But Very Polished People. [fr., La Cour Est Comme Un Edifice Bati De Marbre; Je Veux Dire Qu'elle Est Composee D'hommes Fort Durs Mais Fort Polis.]

It Is Because Of Men That Women Dislike One Another.

The Spendthrift Robs His Heirs The Miser Robs Himself.

Too Great Carelessness, Equally With Excess In Dress, Multiplies The Wrinkles Of Old Age, And Makes Its Decay Still More Conspicuous.

The Beginning And The End Of Love Are Both Marked By Embarrassment When The Two Find Themselves Alone. [fr., Le Commencement Et Le Declin De L'amour Se Font Sentir Par L'embarras Ou L'on Est De Se Trouver Seuls.]

Life Is A Kind Of Sleep: Old Men Sleep Longest, Nor Begin To Wake But When They Are To Die.

There Is Nothing Which Continues Longer Than A Moderate Fortune; Nothing Of Which One Sees Sooner The End Than A Large Fortune.

This Great Misfortune, To Be Incapable Of Solitude.

Duty Is What Goes Most Against The Grain, Because In Doing That We Do Only What We Are Strictly Obliged To, And Are Seldom Much Praised For It.

We Should Like Those Whom We Love To Receive All Their Happiness, Or, If This Were Impossible, All Their Unhappiness From Our Hands.

A Man May Doubt Of God's Existence When He Is In Good Health, Just As He May Doubt Whether His Relation With A Harlot Is Sinful. When He Falls Ill, When Dropsy Develops, He Leaves His Concubine, And He Believes In God.

There Is A Pleasure In Meeting The Glance Of A Person Whom We Have Lately Laid Under Some Obligations.

The Fear Of Old Age Disturbs Us, Yet We Are Not Certain Of Becoming Old.

Poverty May Be The Mother Of Crime, But Lack Of Good Sense Is The Father.

A Modest Man Never Talks Of Himself.

It Is Too Much For A Husband To Have A Wife Who Is A Coquette And Sanctimonious As Well; She Should Select Only One Of Those Qualities.

Hatred Is So Lasting And Stubborn, That Reconciliation On A Sickbed Certainly Forebodes Death.

A Person's Worth In This World Is Estimated According To The Value He Puts On Himself.

Nothing Is Easier For Passion Than To Overcome Reason, But The Greatest Triumph Is To Conquer A Man's Own Interests.

Whatever Is Certain In Death Is Slightly Alleviated By What Is Not So Infallible; The Time When It Shall Happen Is Undefined, But It Is More Or Less Connected With The Infinite, And What We Call Eternity.

When We Are Young We Lay Up For Old Age; When We Are Old We Save For Death.

If Poverty Is The Mother Of All Crimes, Lack Of Intelligence Is The Father.

Men Regret Their Life Has Been Ill-spent, But This Does Not Always Induce Them To Make A Better Use Of The Time They Have Yet To Live.

The Passion Of Hatred Is So Long Lived And So Obstinate A Malady That The Surest Sign Of Death In A Sick Person Is Their Desire For Reconciliation.

An Assembly Of The States, A Court Of Justice, Shows Nothing So Serious And Grave As A Table Of Gamesters Playing Very High; A Melancholy Solicitude Clouds Their Looks; Envy And Rancor Agitate Their Minds While The Meeting Lasts, Without Regard To Friendship, Alliances, Birth Or Distinctions.

If You Suppress The Exorbitant Love Of Pleasure And Money, Idle Curiosity, Iniquitous Pursuits And Wanton Mirth, What A Stillness Would There Be In The Greatest Cities.

It Is Very Rare To Find Ground Which Produces Nothing; If It Is Not Covered With Flowers, With Fruit Trees And Grains, It Produces Briers And Pines. It Is The Same With Man; If He Is Not Virtuous, He Becomes Vicious.

People Reveal Their Character Even In The Simplest Things They Do. Fools Do Not Enter A Room, Nor Leave It, Nor Sit Down, Nor Rise, Nor Are They Silent, Nor Do They Stand Up, Like People Of Sense And Understanding.

We Wish To Constitute All The Happiness, Or, If That Cannot Be, The Misery Of The One We Love.

A Vain Man Finds His Account In Speaking Good Or Evil Of Himself.

A Guilty Man Is Punished As An Example For The Mob; An Innocent Man Convicted Is The Business Of Every Honest Citizen.

Sudden Love Is Latest Cured.

Man Makes Up His Mind He Will Preach, And He Preaches.

If You Wish To Be Held In Esteem, You Must Ssociate Only With Those Who Estimable.

I Take Sanctuary In An Honest Mediocrity.

A Tall, Well-built Man With A Deep Chest And Broad Shoulders Can Carry A Heavy Burden With Ease And Unconcern, And Still Keep One Hand Free; A Dwarf Would Be Crushed By Half That Weight. Thus Lofty Posts Make Great Men Greater Still, And Small Men Much Smaller.

The Pleasure We Feel In Criticizing Robs Us From Being Moved By Very Beautiful Things.

Discretion Is The Perfection Of Reason, And A Guide To Us In All The Duties Of Life; Cunning Is A Kind Of Instinct, That Only Looks Out After Our Immediate Interests And Welfare. Discretion Is Only Found In Men Of Strong Sense And Good Understanding; Cunning Is Often To Be Met With In Brutes Themselves, And In Persons Who Are But The Fewest Removes From Them.

The Most Exquisite Pleasure Is Giving Pleasure To Others.

The Fears Of Old Age Disturb Us, Yet How Few Attain It?

To How Many Girls Has A Great Beauty Been Of No Other Use But To Make Them Expect A Large Fortune!

I Would Not Like To See A Person Who Is Sober, Moderate, Chaste And Just Say That There Is No God. They Would Speak Disinterestedly At Least, But Such A Person Is Not To Be Found.

A Man Of Moderate Understanding, Thinks He Writes Divinely: A Man Of Good Understanding, Thinks He Writes Reasonably.

False Greatness Is Unsociable And Remote: Conscious Of Its Own Frailty, It Hides, Or At Least Averts Its Face, And Reveals Itself Only Enough To Create An Illusion And Not Be Recognized As The Meanness That It Really Is. True Greatness Is Free, Kind, Familiar And Popular; It Lets Itself Be Touched And Handled, It Loses Nothing By Being Seen At Close Quarters; The Better One Knows It, The More One Admires It.

There Is No Excess In The World So Commendable As Excessive Gratitude.

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