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How Many Men Are Like Trees, Already Strong And Full Grown, Which Are Transplanted Into Some Gardens, To The Astonishment Of Those People Who Behold Them In These Fine Spots, Where They Never Saw Them Grow, And Who Neither Know Their Beginning Nor Their Progress!

-Jean De La Bruyere

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How Many Men Are

Jean De La Bruyere

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How Many Men Are Like Trees, Already Strong And Full Grown, Which Are Transplanted Into Some Gardens, To The Astonishment Of Those People Who Behold Them In These Fine Spots, Where They Never Saw Them Grow, And Who Neither Know Their Beginning Nor Their Progress!

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I Am Told So Many Ill Things Of A Man, And I See So Few In Him, That I Begin To Suspect He Has A Real But Troublesome Merit, As Being Likely To Eclipse That Of Others.

Widows, Like Ripe Fruit, Drop Easily From Their Perch.

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.

This Great Misfortune, To Be Incapable Of Solitude.

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.

It Is Easier To Enrich Ourselves With A Thousand Virtues, Than To Correct Ourselves Of A Single Fault.

Pure Friendship Is Something Which Men Of An Inferior Intellect Can Never Taste.

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

Life Is Too Short

Love Begins With Love ; And The Warmest Friendship Cannot Change Even To The Coldest Love.

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

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

A Modest Man Never Talks Of Himself.

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

A Man Who Is Free And Unmarried, If He Has Some Intelligence, Can Rise Above His Fortune, Mingle In Society And Meet The Best People On An Equal Footing. This Is Harder For A Married Man: Marriage, It Seems, Confines Every Man To His Proper Rank.

An Inconstant Woman Is One Who Is No Longer In Love; A False Woman Is One Who Is Already In Love With Another Person; A Fickle Woman Is She Who Neither Knows Whom She Loves Nor Whether She Loves Or Not; And The Indifferent Woman, One Who Does Not Love At All.

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

There Are Some Extraordinary Fathers, Who Seem, During The Whole Course Of Their Lives, To Be Giving Their Children Reasons For Being Consoled At Their Death.

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

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

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

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.

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.

Envy And Hatred Go Together. Mutually Strengthened By The Fact Pursue The Same Object.

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.

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.

Children Enjoy The Present Because They Have Neither A Past Nor A Future.

Don't Wait To Be Happy To Laugh... You May Die And Never Have Laughed.

A Lovely Countenance Is The Fairest Of All Sights, And The Sweetest Harmony Is The Sound Of The Voice Of Her Whom We Love.

The Same Common Sense Which Makes An Author Write Good Things, Makes Him Dread They Are Not Good Enough To Deserve Reading.

Politeness Makes One Appear Outwardly As They Should Be Within.

A Man Is Rich Whose Income Is Larger Than His Expenses, And He Is Poor If His Expenses Are Greater Than His Income.

The Reason That Women Do Not Love One Another Is - Men.

Love One Another

Banter Is Often A Proof Of Want Of Intelligence.

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

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 Same Principle Leads Us To Neglect A Man Of Merit That Induces Us To Admire A Fool. [fr., Du Meme Fonds Dont On Neglige Un Homme De Merite L'on Sait Encore Admirer Un Sot.]

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.

A Coxcomb Is The Blockhead's Man Of Merit.

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.

Everything Has Been Said, And We Have Come Too Late, Now That Men Have Been Living And Thinking For Seven Thousand Years And More.

The Majority Of Women Have No Principles Of Their Own; They Are Guided By The Heart, And Depend For Their Own Conduct, Upon That Of The Men They Love.

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.

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

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.

A Fool Is One Whom Simpletons Believe To Be A Man On Merit. [fr., Un Fat Celui Que Les Sots Croient Un Homme De Merite.]

The Best Thing Next To Wit Is A Consciousness That It Is Not In Us; Without Wit, A Man Might Then Know How To Behave Himself, So As Not To Appear To Be A Fool Or A Coxcomb.

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

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

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.

Logic Is The Art Of Making Truth Prevail.

Languages Are The Keys Of Science.

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.

Caprice In Woman Is The Antidote To Beauty.

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

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

It Is A Fool's Privilege To Laugh At An Intelligent Man.

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.

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.

We Meet With Few Utterly Dull And Stupid Souls: The Sublime And Transcendent Are Still Fewer; The Generality Of Mankind Stand Between These Two Extremes: The Interval Is Filled With Multitudes Of Ordinary Geniuses, But All Very Useful, And The Ornaments And Supports Of The Commonwealth.

A Woman Is Easily Governed, If A Man Takes Her In Hand.

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

It Is Because Of Men That Women Dislike One Another.

A Lofty Birth Or A Large Fortune Portend Merit, And Cause It To Be The Sooner Noticed.

Intelligence Is To Genius As The Whole Is In Proportion To Its Part. [fr., Entre Esprit Et Talent Il Y A La Proportion Du Tout A Sa Partie.]

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

I Never Have Wit Until I Am Below Stairs. [fr., Je N'ai Jamais D'esprit Qu'au Bas De L'escalier.]

The First Day One Is A Guest, The Second A Burden, And The Third A Pest.

Great Things Astonish Us, And Small Dishearten Us. Custom Makes Both Familiar.

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!

Logic Is The Technique By Which We Add Conviction To Truth.

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.]

When We Have Run Through All Forms Of Government, Without Partiality To That We Were Born Under, We Are At A Loss With Which To Side; They Are All A Compound Of Good And Evil. It Is Therefore Most Reasonable And Safe To Value That Of Our Own Country Above All Others, And To Submit To It.

Mockery Is Often The Result Of A Poverty Of Wit.

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

The Flatterer Does Not Think Highly Enough Of Himself Or Of Others.

The Pleasure A Man Of Honor Enjoys In The Consciousness Of Having Performed His Duty Is A Reward He Pays Himself For All His Pains.

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 A Book Raises Your Spirit, And Inspires You With Noble And Manly Thoughts, Seek For No Other Test Of Its Excellence. It Is Good, And Made By A Good Workman.

For Some People, Speaking And Giving Offence Are One And The Same Thing. They Are Spiteful And Bitter; Their Style Is Infused With Gall And Wormwood; Mockery, Abuse And Insults Flow From Their Lips Like Spittle.

Make Me Chaste And To What Excesses Will Men Not Go For The Sake Of A Religion In Which They Believe So Little And Which They Practice So Imperfectly!

We All Covet Wealth, But Not Its Perils.

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

If A Handsome Woman Allows That Another Woman Is Beautiful, We May Safely Conclude She Excels Her.

Courtly Manners Are Contagious; They Are Caught At Versailles.

Young People Are Dazzled By The Brilliancy Of Antithesis, And Employ It. Matter-of-fact Men, And Those Who Like Precision, Naturally Fall Into Comparisons And Metaphor. Sprightly Natures, Full Of Fire, And Whom A Boundless Imagination Carries Beyond All Rules, And Even What Is Reasonable, Cannot Rest Satisfied Even With Hyperbole. As For The Sublime, It Is Only Great Geniuses And Those Of The Very Highest Order That Are Able To Rise To Its Height.

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

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

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.

Women Become Attached To Men By The Intimacies They Grant Them; Men Are Cured Of Their Love By The Same Intimacies.

It's Motive Alone Which Gives Character To The Actions Of Men.

Some People Pretend They Never Were In Love And Never Wrote Poetry; Two Weaknesses Which They Dare Not Own -- One Of The Heart, The Other Of The Mind.

When Life Is Unhappy It Is Hard To Endure, When It Is Happy It Is Terrible To Think Of It Ending. Both Amount To The Same Thing In The End.

To Forget Someone Means To Think Of Him.

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

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.

Criticism Is As Often A Trade As A Science, Requiring, As It Does, More Health Than Wit, More Labour Than Capacity, More Practice Than Genius.

Life Is Short, If We Are Only Said To Live When We Enjoy Ourselves; And If We Were Merely To Count Up The Hours We Spent Agreeably, A Great Number Of Years Would Hardly Make Up A Life Of A Few Months.

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.]

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

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

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.

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.

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

Let Us Not Complain Against Men Because Otheir Rudeness, Their Ingratitude, Their Injustice, Their Arrogance, Their Love Oself, Their Forgetfulness Oothers. They Are So Made. Such Is Their Nature.

The Doctors Allow One To Die, The Charlatans Kill.

How Much Wit, Good-nature, Indulgences, How Many Good Offices And Civilities, Are Required Among Friends To Accomplish In Some Years What A Lovely Face Or A Fine Hand Does In A Minute!

A Man Only Goes And Confesses His Faults To The World When His Self Will Not Acknowledge Or Listen To Them. Wyndham Lewis, Tarr Two Persons Will Not Be Friends Long If They Are Not Inclined To Pardon Each Other's Little Failings.

Men Are The Cause Of Women Not Loving One Another. [fr., Les Hommes Sont La Cause Que Les Femmes Ne S'aiment Point.]

What Is Certain In Death Is Somewhat Softened By What Is Uncertain; It Is An Indefiniteness In The Time, Which Holds A Certain Relation To The Infinite, And What Is Called Eternity.

Profane Eloquence Is Transfered From The Bar, Where Le Maitre, Pucelle, And Fourcroy Formerly Practised It, And Where It Has Become Obsolete, To The Pulpit, Where It Is Out Of Place.

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.

The Nearer We Approach Great Men, The Clearer We See That They Are Men.

Death Happens But Once, Yet We Feel It Every Moment Of Our Lives; It Is Worse To Dread It Than To Suffer It.

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

All Of Our Unhappiness Comes From Our Inability To Be Alone.

Most Men Spend The First Half Of Their Lives Making The Second Half Miserable.

It Is Worse To Apprehend Than To Suffer.

Tyranny Has No Need Of Arts Or Sciences, For Its Policy, Which Is Very Shallow And Without Any Refinement, Only Consists In Shedding Blood.

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.

If This Life Is Unhappy, It Is A Burden To Us, Which It Is Difficult To Bear; If It Is In Every Respect Happy, It Is Dreadful To Be Deprived Of It; So That In Either Case The Result Is The Same, For We Must Exist In Anxiety And Apprehension.

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

Even The Best Intentioned Of Great Men Need A Few Scoundrels Around Them; There Are Some Things You Cannot Ask An Honest Ma To Do.

I Take Sanctuary In An Honest Mediocrity.

It Is Not So Easy To Obtain A Reputation By A Perfect Work As To Enhance The Value Of An Indifferent One By A Reputation Already Acquired.

A Woman With Eyes Only For One Person, Or With Eyes Always Averted From Him, Creates Exactly The Same Impression.

Praise, Of All Things, Is The Most Powerful Excitement To Commendable Actions, And Animates Us In Our Enterprises.

Some Men Promise To Keep Your Secret And Yet Reveal It Without Knowing They Are Doing So; They Do Not Wag Their Lips, And Yet They Are Understood; It Is Read On Their Brow And In Their Eyes; It Is Seen Through Their Breast; They Are Transparent.

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

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.

The Duty Of A Judge Is To Administer Justice, But His Practice Is To Delay It

It Is Motive Alone That Gives Real Value To The Actions Of Men, And Disinterestedness Puts The Cap To It.

Sudden Love Is Latest Cured.

It Is No More In Our Power To Love Always Than It Was Not To Love At All.

A Man May Have Intelligence Enough To Excel In A Particular Thing And Lecture On It, And Yet Not Have Sense Enough To Know He Ought To Be Silent On Some Other Subject Of Which He Has But A Slight Knowledge; If Such An Illustrious Man Ventures Beyond The Bounds Of His Capacity, He Loses His Way And Talks Like A Fool.

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.]

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

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.]

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.

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

How Sweet, How Passing Sweet, Is Solitude!

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

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.

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.

Women Are At Little Trouble To Express What They Do Not Feel; But Men Are Still At Less To Express What They Do Feel.

It Is Difficult For A Proud Man Ever To Forgive A Person Who Has Found Him At Fault, And Who Has Good Grounds For Complaining Of Him; His Pride Is Not Assuaged Till He Has Regained The Advantages He Lost And Put The Other Person In The Wrong.

Women Are Extreme; They Are Better Than Men, Or Worse.

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

Caprice In Women Often Infringes Upon The Rules Of Decency.

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

A Pious Man Is One Who Would Be An Atheist If The King Were.

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.

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

A Wise Man Is Not Governed By Others, Nor Does He Try To Govern Them; He Prefers That Reason Alone Prevail.

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.

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.]

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

We Seldom Repent Of Speaking Little, Very Often Of Speaking Too Much: A Vulgar And Trite Maxim, Which All The World Knows And, But Which All The World Does Not Practice

There Is Speaking Well, Speaking Easily, Speaking Justly And Speaking Seasonably: It Is Offending Against The Last, To Speak Of Entertainments Before The Indigent; Of Sound Limbs And Health Before The Infirm; Of Houses And Lands Before One Who Has Not So Much As A Dwelling; In A Word, To Speak Of Your Prosperity Before The Miserable; This Conversation Is Cruel, And The Comparison Which Naturally Arises In Them Betwixt Their Condition And Yours Is Excruciating.

The Very Impossibility In Which I Find Myself To Prove That God Is Not, Discloses To Me His Existence. [fr., L'impossibilite Ou Je Suis De Prouver Que Dieu N'est Pas, Me Decouvre Son Existence.]

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

The Punishment Of A Criminal Is An Example To The Rabble; But Every Decent Man Is Concerned If An Innocent Person Is Condemned.

Innocent Person

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.

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

There Are Some Souls So Base And Filthy That They Love Gain And Interest As Noble Souls Love Fame And Virtue, Knowing One Pleasure Only, That Of Making Money Or Of Not Losing It; Anxious And Avid For Their Ten Per Cent; Entirely Preoccupied With What Is Owed Them; Forever Concerned About The Depreciation Or Discredit Of Money; Buried, And As It Were Engulfed, Amid Contracts, Title-deeds And Parchments. Such People Are Neither Parents, Friends, Citizens Or Christians, Nor, Perhaps, Even Men; They Merely Have Money.

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

Sad Valentines Day

We Must Strive To Make Ourselves Really Worthy Of Some Employment. We Need Pay No Attention To Anything Else; The Rest Is The Business Of Others.

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

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

The Most Exquisite Pleasure Is Giving Pleasure To Others.

All The World Says Of A Coxcomb That He Is A Coxcomb; But No One Dares To Say So To His Face, And He Dies Without Knowing It.

A Judge's Duty Is To Grant Justice, But His Practice Is To Delay It: Even Those Judges Who Know Their Duty Adhere To The General Practice.

To Bewail The Loss Of A Person We Love Is A Happiness Compared With The Necessity Of Living With One We Hate.

Among Some People Arrogance Supplies The Place Of Grandeur, Inhumanity Of Decision, And Roguery Of Intelligence.

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

If A Secret Is Revealed, The Person Who Has Confided It To Another Is To Be Blamed.

The Most Important Things Must Be Said Simply, For They Are Spoiled By Bombast; Whereas Trivial Things Must Be Described Grandly, For They Are Supported Only By Aptness Of Expression, Tone And Manner.

It Is More Or Less Rude To Scorn Indiscriminately All Kinds Of Praise; We Ought To Be Proud Of That Which Comes From Honest Men, Who Praise Sincerely Those Things In Us Which Are Really Commendable.

The Very Essence Of Politeness Seems To Be To Take Care That By Our Words And Actions We Make Other People Pleased With Us As Well As With Themselves.

It Requires More Than Mere Genius To Be An Author.

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.

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!

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

A Party Spirit Betrays The Greatest Men To Act As Meanly As The Vulgar Herd.

Wit Is The God Of Moments, But Genius Is The God Of Ages.

We Trust Our Secrets To Our Friends, But They Escape From Us In Love.

If Our Life Is Unhappy It Is Painful To Bear; If It Is Happy It Is Horrible To Lose, So The One Is Pretty Equal To The Other.

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

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

A Position Of Eminence Makes A Great Person Greater And A Small Person Less.

The Opposite Of What Is Noised About Concerning Men And Things Is Often The Truth. [fr., Le Contraire Des Bruits Qui Courent Des Affaires Ou Des Personnes Est Souvent La Verite.]

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.

There Are Some Men Who Turn A Deaf Ear To Reason And Good Advice, And Willfully Go Wrong For Fear Of Being Controlled.

To Express Truth Is To Write Naturally, Forcibly, And Delicately.

Men Blush Less For Their Crimes Than For Their Weaknesses And Vanity.

It Seems To Me That The Spirit Of Politeness Is A Certain Attention In Causing That, By Our Words And By Our Manners, Others May Be Content With Us And With Themselves.

The Opera Is Obviously The First Draft Of A Fine Spectacle; It Suggests The Idea Of One.

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

Eminent Station Makes Great Men More Great, And Little Ones Less.

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

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