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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.

-Jean De La Bruyere

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There Are Some Souls

Jean De La Bruyere

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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.

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The Wise Person Often Shuns Society For Fear Of Being Bored.

It Is Through Madness That We Hate An Enemy, And Think Of Revenging Ourselves; And It Is Through Indolence That We Are Appeased, And Do Not Revenge Ourselves.

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

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.

There Is A False Modesty, Which Is Vanity; A False Glory, Which Is Levity; A False Grandeur, Which Is Meanness; A False Virtue, Which Is Hypocrisy, And A False Wisdom, Which Is Prudery.

Men Blush Less For Their Crimes Than For Their Weaknesses And Vanity. [fr., Les Hommes Rougissent Moins De Leur Crimes Que De Leurs Faiblesses Et De Leur Vanite.]

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.

One Must Laugh Before One Is Happy, Or One May Die Without Ever Laughing At All.

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

Love One Another

When What You Read Elevates Your Mind And Fills You With Noble Aspirations, Look For No Other Rule By Which To Judge A Book; It Is Good, And Is The Work Of A Master-hand.

Next To Sound Judgment, Diamonds And Pearls Are The Rarest Things In The World.

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.

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

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.

A Man Starts Upon A Sudden, Takes Pen, Ink, And Paper, And Without Ever Having Had A Thought Of It Before, Resolves Within Himself He Will Write A Book; He Has No Talent At Writing, But He Wants Fifty Guineas.

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.

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

We Rarely Repent Of Speaking Little, But Often Of Speaking Too Much.

Sudden Love Is Latest Cured.

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

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

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.

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

A Man Can Keep Another's Secret Better Than His Own. A Woman Her Own Better Than Others.

Keeping Secrets

The Generality Of Men Expend The Early Part Of Their Lives In Contributing To Render The Latter Part Miserable.

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

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

How Sweet, How Passing Sweet, Is Solitude!

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

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.

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.

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

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

Friendship Can Exist Between Persons Of Different Sexes, Without Any Coarse Or Sensual Feelings; Yet A Woman Always Looks Upon A Man As A Man, And So A Man Will Look Upon A Woman As A Woman.

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

The Great Charm Of Conversation Consists Less In The Display Of One's Own Wit And Intelligence Than In The Power To Draw Forth The Resources Of Others.

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

Avoid Lawsuits Beyond All Things; They Pervert Your Conscience, Impair Your Health, And Dissipate Your Property.

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

We Ought Not To Make Those People Our Enemies Who Might Have Become Our Friends, If We Had Only Known Them Better.

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!

Grief At The Absence Of A Loved One Is Happiness Compared To Life With A Person One Hates.

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

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

There Are Some Who Speak One Moment Before They Think

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

Public Speaking

They Who, Without Any Previous Knowledge Of Us, Think Amiss Of Us, Do Us No Harm; They Attack Not Us, But The Phantom Of Their Own Imagination.

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.

Discourtesy Does Not Spring Merely From One Bad Quality, But From Several--from Foolish Vanity, From Ignorance Of What Is Due To Others, From Indolence, From Stupidity, From Distraction Of Thought, From Contempt Of Others, From Jealousy.

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.

He Who Knows How To Wait For What He Desires Does Not Feel Very Desperate If He Fails In Obtaining It; And He, On The Contrary, Who Is Very Impatient In Procuring A Certain Thing, Takes So Much Pains About It, That, Even When He Is Successful, He Does Not Think Himself Sufficiently Rewarded.

It Is A Proof Of Boorishness To Confer A Favor With A Bad Grace; It Is The Act Of Giving That Is Hard And Painful. How Little Does A Smile Cost?

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

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

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.]

Children Have Neither Past Nor Future; They Enjoy The Present, Which Very Few Of Us Do.

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!

Such A Great Misfortune, Not To Be Able To Be Alone.

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

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.

Banter Is Often A Proof Of Want Of Intelligence.

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

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

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.

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.

Amongst Such As Out Of Cunning Hear All And Talk Little, Be Sure To Talk Less; Or If You Must Talk, Say Little.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

The Most Delicate, The Most Sensible Of All Pleasures, Consists In Promoting The Pleasure Of Others.

Courtly Manners Are Contagious; They Are Caught At Versailles.

A Man Without Characteristics Is A Most Insipid Character.

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

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

Love Seizes Us Suddenly, Without Giving Warning, And Our Disposition Or Our Weakness Favors The Surprise; One Look, One Glance, From The Fair Fixes And Determines Us.

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 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

I Call Worldly Or Earthly Those Whose Minds And Hearts Are Fixed On A Tiny Portion Of This World They Live In, Which Is Our Earth; Who Respect And Love Nothing Beyond It: People As Limited As What They Call Their Property Or Their Estate, Which Can Be Measured, Whose Acres Can Be Counted, Whose Boundaries Can Be Shown.

The Mind, Like All Other Things, Will Become Impaired, The Sciences Are Its Food,--they Nourish, But At The Same Time They Consume It.

Laziness Begat Wearisomeness, And This Put Men In Quest Of Diversions, Play And Company, On Which However It Is A Constant Attendant; He Who Works Hard, Has Enough To Do With Himself Otherwise.

The Whole Genius Of An Author Consists In Describing Well, And Delineating Character Well. Homer, Plato, Virgil, Horace Only Excel Other Writers By Their Expressions And Images; We Must Indicate What Is True If We Mean To Write Naturally, Forcibly And Delicately.

Nothing Makes Us Better Understand What Trifling Things Providence Thinks He Bestows On Men In Granting Them Wealth, Money, Dignities, And Other Advantages, Than The Manner In Which They Are Distributed And The Kind Of Men Who Have The Largest Share.

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.]

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

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!

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.

I Am Not Surprised That Men Who Put Their Trust In An Atom Should Fail In Their Slightest Attempts To Plumb Truth, That With Such Limited Vision They Cannot See Beyond The Sky And The Stars To God Himself; That Since They Cannot Discern The Superiority Of What Is Spiritual Or The Dignity Of Man's Soul, They Are Even More Unaware How Hard It Is To Satisfy, How The Whole Earth Is Unworthy Of It, How Urgently It Needs A Supremely Perfect Being, Who Is God, And How Indispensable To It Is A Religion Which Will Lead It Towards God And Provide A Sure Pledge Of Him.

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

Avoid Making Yourself The Subject Of Conversation.

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

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

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.

The Most Amiable People Are Those Who Least Wound The Self-love Of Others.

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

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.

Logic Is The Art Of Making Truth Prevail.

Languages Are The Keys Of Science.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.]

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.

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

When We Lavish Our Money We Rob Our Heir; When We Merely Save It We Rob Ourselves.

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.]

A Man Often Runs The Risk Of Throwing Away A Witticism If He Admits That It Is His Own.

The Noblest Deeds Are Well Enough Set Forth In Simple Language; Emphasis Spoils Them.

We Confide Our Secret To A Friend, But In Love It Escapes Us.

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

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.]

What The People Call Eloquence Is The Facility Some Persons Have Of Speaking Alone And For A Long Time, Aided By Extravagant Gestures, A Loud Voice, And Powerful Lungs.

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

Making A Book Is A Craft, Like Making A Clock; It Needs More Than Native Wit To Be An Author.

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

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

Caprice In Woman Is The Antidote To Beauty.

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.]

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

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.

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 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.

The Spendthrift Robs His Heirs The Miser Robs Himself.

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!

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

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

Men Make The Best Friends.

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

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.]

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.

He Who Can Wait For What He Desires Takes The Course Not To Be Exceedingly Grieved If He Fails Of It; He, On The Contrary, Who Labors After A Thing Too Impatiently Thinks The Success When It Comes Is Not A Recompense Equal To All The Pains He Has Been At About It.

Out Of Difficulties Grow Miracles.

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

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.

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.

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.

A Man Has Made Great Progress In Cunning When He Does Not Seem Too Clever To Others.

Politeness Makes One Appear Outwardly As They Should Be Within.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

It Would Be A Kind Of Ferocity To Reject Indifferently All Sorts Of Praise. One Should Be Glad To Have That Which Comes From Good Men Who Praise In Sincerity Things That Are Really Praiseworthy.

There Are Only Three Events In A Man's Life; Birth, Life, And Death; He Is Not Conscious Of Being Born, He Dies In Pain, And He Forgets To Live.

If Men Wish To Be Held In Esteem, They Must Associate With Those Only Who Are Estimable.

The Most Exquisite Pleasure Is Giving Pleasure To Others.

Anything Is A Temptation To Those Who Dread It.

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

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.

The Court Is Like A Palace Of Marble; It's Composed Of People Very Hard And Very Polished.

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

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.

If It Be Usual To Be Strongly Impressed By Things That Are Scarce, Why Are We So Little Impressed By Virtue?

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.

This Great Misfortune, To Be Incapable Of Solitude.

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.

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.

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

It Is Often Easier As Well As More Advantageous To Conform To Other Men's Opinions Than To Bring Them Over To Ours.

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

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.

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

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.

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

To Forget Someone Means To Think Of Him.

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.

Friendship * * * Is A Long Time In Forming, It Is Of Slow Growth, Through Many Trials And Months Of Familiarity.

A Coxcomb Is The Blockhead's Man Of Merit.

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

Party Loyalty Lowers The Greatest Men To The Petty Level Of The Masses.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

A Man Is Thirty Years Old Before He Has Any Settled Thoughts Of His Fortune; It Is Not Completed Before Fifty. He Falls To Building In His Old Age, And Dies By The Time His House Is In A Condition To Be Painted And Glazed.

Let Us Not Envy Some Men Their Accumulated Riches; Their Burden Would Be Too Heavy For Us; We Could Not Sacrifice, As They Do, Health, Quiet, Honor And Conscience, To Obtain Them: It Is To Pay So Dear From Them That The Bargain Is A Loss.

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

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