Background Image

...

Thus, If The Clarity Of Our Thoughts Comes Through Better In A Play Of Words, Then The Wordplay Is Good. One Must Know How To Enter The Ideas Of Others And How To Leave Them.

-Joseph Joubert

...

Please Wait....
Translating....

Thus, If The Clarity

Joseph Joubert

...

Thus, If The Clarity Of Our Thoughts Comes Through Better In A Play Of Words, Then The Wordplay Is Good. One Must Know How To Enter The Ideas Of Others And How To Leave Them.

Views: 5

Topic

More From Joseph Joubert

Sexes. One Has The Look Of A Wound, The Other Of Something Skinned.

Mediocrity Is Excellence In The Eyes Of The Mediocre.

We Should Make Ourselves Loved, For Men Are Only Just Towards Those Whom They Love.

Virtue By Calculation Is The Virtue Of Vice.

The Last Word Should Be The Last Word. It Is Like A Finishing Touch Given To Color; There Is Nothing More To Add. But What Precaution Is Needed In Order Not To Put The Last Word First.

You Want To Talk To Someone; First Open Your Ears.

In Bringing Up A Child, Think Of Its Old Age.

All Gardeners Live In Beautiful Places Because They Make Them So.

Justice Is The Right Of The Weakest.

Attention Is Like A Narrow Mouthed Vessel; Pour Into It What You Have To Say Cautiously, And, As It Were, Drop By Drop.

Tenderness Is The Rest Of Passion.

I Would Fain Coin Wisdom,—mould It, I Mean, Into Maxims, Proverbs, Sentences, That Can Easily Be Retained And Transmitted. Would That I Could Denounce And Banish From The Language Of Men—as Base Money—the Words By Which They Cheat And Are Cheated!

Religion Must Be Loved As A Kind Of Country And Nursing-mother. It Was Religion That Nourished Our Virtues, That Showed Us Heaven, That Taught Us To Walk In The Path Of Duty.

We Live In An Age In Which Superfluous Ideas Abound And Essential Ideas Are Lacking.

When You Give, Give With Joy And Smiling.

Genius Is The Ability To See Things Invisible, To Manipulate Things Intangible, To Paint Things That Have No Features

How Many People Make Themselves Abstract To Appear Profound. The Most Useful Part Of Abstract Terms Are The Shadows They Create To Hide A Vacuum.

Without Duty, Life Is Soft And Boneless.

Moderation Consists In Being Moved As Angels Are Moved.

The Bible Is To Religion What The Iliad Is To Poetry

The Joy Which Is Caused By Truth And Noble Thoughts Shows Itself In The Words By Which They Are Expressed.

The God Of Metaphysics Is But An Idea. But The God Of Religion, The Maker Of Heaven And Earth, The Sovereign Judge Of Actions And Thoughts, Is A Power.

Every Legitimate Authority Should Respect Its Extent And Its Limits.

In The Interchange Of Thought Use No Coin But Gold And Silver.

Taste Has Never Been Corrupted By Simplicity.

We Know God Easily, If We Do Not Constrain Ourselves To Define Him.

The Ordinary True, Or Purely Real, Cannot Be The Object Of The Arts. Illusion On A Ground Of Truth,--that Is The Secret Of The Fine Arts.

A Temperate Style Is Alone Classical.

Criticism Even Should Not Be Without Its Charms. When Quite Devoid Of All Amenities, It Is No Longer Literary.

You Arrive At Truth Through Poetry; I Arrive At Poetry Through Truth.

There Are People Who Are Virtuous Only In A Piece-meal Way; Virtue Is A Fabric From Which They Never Make Themselves A Whole Garment.

Words Are Like Eyeglasses They Blur Everything That They Do Not Make Clear.

There Is Always Some Frivolity In Excellent Minds; They Have Wings To Rise, But Also Stray.

Nothing Which Does Not Transport Is Poetry. The Lyre Is A Winged Instrument.

Pleasures Are Always Children, Pains Always Have Wrinkles.

No One Is Mediocre Who Has Good Sense And Good Sentiments.

Never Write Anything That Does Not Give You Great Pleasure. Emotion Is Easily Transferred From The Writer To The Reader.

Never Giving Up

Science Confounds Everything; It Gives To The Flowers An Animal Appetite, And Takes Away From Even The Plants Their Chastity.

Everything That Is Exact Is Short.

He Who Has Imagination Without Learning Has Wings But No Feet. [fr., Celui Qui A De L'imagination Sans Erudition A Des Ailes, Et N'a Pas De Pieds.]

It Is Not My Words That I Polish, But My Ideas.

Religion Is Neither A Theology Nor A Theosophy; It Is More Than That, It Is A Discipline, A Law, A Yoke, An Indissoluble Engagement.

Our Life Is Woven Wind.

Fully To Understand A Grand And Beautiful Thought Requires, Perhaps, As Much Time As To Conceive It.

Beautiful Thoughts

A Maxim Is The Exact And Noble Expression Of An Important And Indisputable Truth. Good Maxims Are The Germs Of All Excellence; When Firmly Fixed On The Memory, They Nourish The Will.

Living Requires But Little Life; Doing Requires Much.

A Thought Is A Thing As Real As A Cannonball.

In Order To Be Happy, Think Of The Ills You Have Been Spared.

The Evening Of Life Brings With It Its Lamps.

Taste Is The Literary Conscience Of The Soul.

Illusion And Wisdom Combined Are The Charm Of Life And Art.

The Paper Is Patient, But The Reader Is Not.

Speech Is But The Incorporation Of Thought.

The Breath Of The Mind Is Attention.

Thus, If The Clarity Of Our Thoughts Comes Through Better In A Play Of Words, Then The Wordplay Is Good. One Must Know How To Enter The Ideas Of Others And How To Leave Them.

All Disputation Makes The Mind Deaf; And When People Are Deaf, I Am Dumb.

Nothing Ruins The Truth Like Stretching It... Get Rich Quick! Count Your Blessings... Stop Telling God How Big Your Storm Is. Instead, Tell The Storm How Big Your God Is!!!!!! Contentment Begins Where Comparison Ends. The Aim Of Argument, Or Of Discussion, Should Not Be Victory, But Progress.

Xenophon Wrote With A Swan's Quill, Plato With A Pen Of Gold, And Thucydides With A Brazen Stylus.

The Mind's Direction Is More Important Than Its Progress.

One Should Choose For A Wife Only Such A Woman As He Would Choose For A Friend, Were She A Man.

Forms Of Government Become Established Of Themselves. They Shape Themselves, They Are Not Created. We May Give Them Strength And Consistency, But We Cannot Call Them Into Being. Let Us Rest Assured That The Form Of Government Can Never Be A Matter Of Choice: It Is Almost Always A Matter Of Necessity.

One Day, A Daughter Of Aristotle, Pythias By Name, Was Asked What Color Pleased Her Most. She Replied, "the Color With Which Modesty Suffuses The Face Of Simple, Inoffensive Men.

Logic Works, Metaphysics Contemplates.

Words Become Luminous When The Poet's Finger Has Passed Over Them Its Phosphorescence.

Truth Consists Of Having The Same Idea About Something That God Has.

Music Has Seven Letters, Writing Has Twenty-six Notes

Heaven Is For Those Who Think Of It.

Words, Like Glasses, Obscure Everything They Do Not Make Clear. Before Using A Fine Word, Make A Place For It.

How Many Books There Are Whose Reputation Is Made That Would Not Obtain It Were It Now To Make?

The Idea Of The Nest In The Bird's Mind, Where Does It Come From?

The Talkative Man Speaks From His Mouth, The Eloquent Man Speaks From His Heart.

To Be An Agreeable Guest One Need Only Enjoy Oneself.

Combien De Gens Se Font Abstraits Pour Para?tre Profonds! La Plupart Des Termes Abstraits Sont Des Ombres Qui Cachent Des Vides. How Many People Become Abstract In Order To Appear Profound! Most Abstract Terms Are Shadows That Conceal A Void.

It Is Better To Debate A Question Without Settling It Than To Settle A Question Without Debating It.

Happy Is The Man Who Can Do Only One Thing; In Doing It, He Fulfills His Destiny.

Fate And Necessity Are Unconquerable.

When Credulity Comes From The Heart It Does No Harm To The Intellect.

When The Painter Wishes To Represent An Event, He Cannot Place Before Us Too Great A Number Of Personages; But He Cannot Employ Too Few When He Wishes To Portray An Emotion.

The Ways Suited To Confidence Are Familiar To Me, But Not Those That Are Suited To Familiarity.

Ask The Young. They Know Everything.

There Are Single Thoughts That Contain The Essence Of A Whole Volume, Single Sentences That Have The Beauties Of A Large Work.

In Really Good Acting We Should Be Able To Believe That What We Hear And See Is Of Our Own Imagining; It Should Seem To Be To Us As A Charming Dream.

Ideas Never Lack For Words. It Is Words That Lack Ideas.

Children Must Be Rendered Reasonable, But Not Reasoners. The First Thing To Teach Them Is That It Is Reasonable For Them To Obey, And Unreasonable For Them To Dispute.

Our Worries Always Come From Our Weaknesses.

The Beautiful Invariably Possesses A Visible And A Hidden Beauty; And It Is Certain That No Style Is So Beautiful As That Which Presents To The Attentive Reader A Half-hidden Meaning.

He Who Has Imagination Without Learning Has Wings But No Feet.

Truth Takes The Stamp Of The Souls It Enters. It Is Rigorous And Rough In Arid Souls, But Tempers And Softens Itself In Loving Natures.

Superstition Is The Only Religion Of Which Base Souls Are Capable Of.

The Art Of Saying Well What One Thinks Is Different From The Faculty Of Thinking. The Latter May Be Very Deep And Lofty And Far- Reaching, While The Former Is Altogether Wanting.

The Early And The Latter Part Of Human Life Are The Best, Or, At Least, The Most Worthy Of Respect; The One As The Age Of Innocence, The Other Of Reason.

Children Need Models Rather Than Critics.

The Bible Remained For Me A Book Of Books, Still Divine - But Divine In The Sense That All Great Books Are Divine Which Teach Men How To Live Righteously.

Fear Loves The Idea Of Danger.

Beautiful Works Do Not Intoxicate, But They Enchant.

Old Age Deprives The Intelligent Man Only Of Qualities Useless To Wisdom.

Eyes Raised Toward Heaven Are Always Beautiful, Whatever They Be.

Necessity May Render A Doubtful Act Innocent, But It Cannot Make It Praiseworthy

It Would Be Next To Impossible To Discover A Handsome Woman Who Was Not Also A Vain Woman.

The Best Remedy For A Short Temper Is A Long Walk.

When You Go In Search Of Honey You Must Expect To Be Stung By Bees.

We May Convince Others By Our Arguements, But We Can Only Persuade Them By Their Own

Whence? Wither? Why? How? - These Questions Cover All Philosophy.

Justice Is The Truth In Action.

Never Be Sad For What Is Over, Just Be Glad It Was Once Yours. Kindness Is Loving People More Than They Deserve.

Misery Is Almost Always The Result Of Thinking.

Only Just The Right Quantum Of Wit Should Be Put Into A Book; In Conversation A Little Excess Is Allowable.

One Can With Dignity Be Wife And Widow But Once.

What A Man Knows Only Through Feeling Can Be Explained Only Through Enthusiasm.

A Few Words Worthy To Be Remembered Suffice To Give An Idea Of A Great Mind. There Are Single Thoughts That Contain The Essence Of A Whole Volume, Single Sentences That Have The Beauties Of A Large Work, A Simplicity So Finished And So Perfect That It Equals In Merit And In Excellence A Large And Glorious Composition.

You Will Find Poetry Nowhere Unless You Bring Some Of It With You.

A Fluent Writer Always Seems More Talented Than He Is. To Write Well, One Needs A Natural Felicity And An Acquired Difficulty.

Proverbs May Be Said To Be The Abridgment Of Wisdom.

Strength Is Not Energy; Some Authors Have More Muscles Than Talent.

Genius Begins Beautiful Works, But Only Labor Finishes Them.

Grace Imitates Modesty, As Politeness Imitates Kindness.

Genuinely Good Remarks Surprise Their Author As Well As His Audience.

Those Who Never Retract Their Opinions Love Themselves More Than They Love The Truth.

The Mind Is The Atmosphere Of The Soul.

In Clothes Clean And Fresh There Is A Kind Of Youth With Which Age Should Surround Itself.

We Shall Always Keep A Spare Corner In Our Heads To Give Passing Hospitality To Our Friends' Opinion.

Ideas Never Lack For Words. It Is Words That Lack Ideas. As Soon As The Idea Has Come To Its Last Degree Of Perfection, The Word Blossoms.

God Has Commanded Time To Console The Afflicted.

Remorse Is The Punishment Of Crime; Repentance, Its Expiation. The Former Appertains To A Tormented Conscience; The Latter To A Soul Changed For The Better.

I Love Prudence Very Little, If It Is Not Moral.

Think Of The Ills From Which You Are Exempt.

Professional Critics Are Incapable Of Distinguishing And Appreciating Either Diamonds In The Rough Or Gold In Bars. They Are Traders, And In Literature Know Only The Coins That Are Current. Their Critical Lab Has Scales And Weights, But Neither Crucible Or Touchstone.

Drawing Is Speaking To The Eye; Talking Is Painting To The Ear.

To Teach Is To Learn Twice. About All Some Parents Accomplish In Life Is To Send A Child To Harvard. The Purpose Of A Liberal Education Is To Make One's Mind A Pleasant Place To Spend One's Leisure.

Reason Is A Bee, And Exists Only On What It Makes; His Usefulness Takes The Place Of Beauty.

Credulity Forges More Miracles Than Trickery Could Invent.

We Disjoint The Mind Like The Body.

A Part Of Kindness Consists In Loving People More Than They Deserve.

Of The Two, I Prefer Those Who Render Vice Lovable To Those Who Degrade Virtue.

All Luxury Corrupts Either The Morals Or The Taste.

Who Ever Has No Fixed Opinions Has No Constant Feelings.

He Who Has Not The Weakness Of Friendship Has Not The Strength.

I Do Not Call Reason That Brutal Reason Which Crushes With Its Weight What Is Holy And Sacred, That Malignant Reason Which Delights In The Errors It Succeeds In Discovering, That Unfeeling And Scornful Reason Which Insults Credulity.

Logic Is To Grammar What The Sense Of Words Is To Their Sound.

Imitate Time; It Destroys Everything Slowly; It Undermines, It Wears Away, It Detaches, It Does Not Wrench.

Grief - Happiness Is To Feel That One's Soul Is Good; There Is No Other, In Truth, And This Kind Of Happiness May Exist Even In Sorrow, So That There Are Griefs Perfable To Every Joy, And Such As Would Be Preferred By All Those Who Have Felt Them.

Thoughts There Are, That Need No Embodying, No Form, No Expression. It Is Enough To Hint At Them Vaguely; A Word, And They Are Heard And Seen.

Politeness Smooths Wrinkles.

Life Is A Country That The Old Have Seen, And Lived In. Those Who Have To Travel Through It Can Only Learn From Them.

Chance Generally Favors The Prudent.

Grace Is In Garments, In Movements, In Manners; Beauty In The Nude, And In Forms. This Is True Of Bodies; But When We Speak Of Feelings, Beauty Is In Their Spirituality, And Grace In Their Moderation.

The Voice Is A Human Sound Which Nothing Inanimate Can Perfectly Imitate. It Has An Authority And An Insinuating Property Which Writing Lacks. It Is Not Merely So Much Air, But Air Modulated And Impregnated With Life.

Without The Spiritual World The Material World Is A Disheartening Enigma.

Religion Is Fire Which Example Keeps Alive, And Which Goes Out If Not Communicated.

National Literature Begins With Fables And Ends With Novels.

Our Ideals, Like Pictures, Are Made From Lights And Shadows.

God Multiplies Intelligence, Which Communicates Itself, Like Fire, Ad Infinitum. Light A Thousand Torches At One Touch, The Flame Remains Always The Same.

Education Should Be Gentle And Stern, Not Cold And Lax.

How Many People Eat, Drink, And Get Married; Buy, Sell, And Build; Make Contracts And Attend To Their Fortune; Have Friends And Enemies, Pleasures And Pains, Are Born, Grow Up, Live And Die - But Asleep!

The Aim Of Argument, Or Of Discussion, Should Not Be Victory, But Progress.

Contempt For Private Wrongs Was One Of The Features Of Ancient Morals.

Maxims Are To The Intellect What Laws Are To Actions; They Do Not Enlighten, But They Guide And Direct, And, Although Themselves Blind, Are Protective.

What Can You Possibly Add To A Mind That's Full, Especially One That's Full Of Itself.

Some Superior Minds Are Unrecognized Because There Is No Standard By Which To Weigh Them.

The Passions Should Be Purged; All May Become Innocent If They Are Well Directed And Moderated. Even Hatred Maybe A Commendable Feeling When It Is Caused By A Lively Love Of Good. Whatever Makes The Passions Pure, Makes Them Stronger, More Durable, And More Enjoyable.

Ornaments Were Invented By Modesty.

In Temperance There Is Ever Cleanliness And Elegance.

Before You Use A Fancy Word, Make Room For It.

Be Charitable And Indulge To Everyone, But Thyself.

The Supreme Sway Of Chastity Over The Senses Makes Her Queenly.

History Needs Distance, Perspective. Facts And Events Which Are Too Well Attested Cease, In Some Sort, To Be Malleable.

When A Nation Gives Birth To A Man Who Is Able To Produce A Great Thought, Another Is Born Who Is Able To Understand And Admire It.

Haughty People Seem To Me To Have, Like The Dwarfs, The Stature Of A Child And The Face Of A Man.

Space Is To Place As Eternity Is To Time.

Let Us Be Men With Men, And Always Children Before God; For In His Eyes We Are But Children. Old Age Itself, In Presence Of Eternity, Is But The First Moment Of A Morning.

Good Impulses Are Naught, Unless They Become Good Actions.

Abuse Of Words Is The Foundation Of Ideology.

Success Serves Men As A Pedestal. It Makes Them Seem Greater When Not Measured By Reflection.

There Are Some Heads Which Have No Windows, And The Day Can Never Strike From Above; Nothing Enters From Heavenard.

If You Are Poor, Distinguish Yourself By Your Virtues; If Rich, By Your Good Deeds.

We Use Up In The Passions The Stuff That Was Given Us For Happiness.

Antiquity! I Like Its Ruins Better Than Its Reconstructions.

There Is Graciousness And A Kind Of Urbanity In Beginning With Men By Esteem And Confidence. It Proves, At Least, That We Have Long Lived In Good Company With Others And With Our Selves.

A False Mind Is False In Everything, Just As A Cross Eye Always Looks Askant. But One May Err Once, Nay, A Hundred Times, Without Being Double-minded. There Can Never Be Mental Duplicity Where There Is Sincerity.

The Punishment Of Those Who Have Loved Women Too Much Is To Love Them Always.

Genuine Bon Mots Surprise Those From Whose Lips They Fall, No Less Than They Do Those Who Listen To Them.

The Soul That Is The Abode Of Chastity Acquires An Energy Which Enables Her To Surmount With Ease The Obstacles That Lie Along The Path Of Duty.

There Are Those To Whom One Must Advise Madness.

Man Is Born With The Faculty Of Speech. Who Gives It To Him? He Who Gives The Bird Its Song.

Those Readiest To Criticise Are Often Least Able To Appreciate.

Which Is More Misshapen,--religion Without Virtue, Or Virtue Without Religion?

Let Your Cry Be For Free Souls Rather Than For Freedom. Moral Liberty Is The Only Important Liberty.

When One Has Too Great A Dread Of What Is Impending, One Feels Some Relief When The Trouble Has Come.

Innocence Is Always Unsuspicious.

Every Modulated Sound Is Not A Song, And Every Voice That Executes A Beautiful Air Does Not Sing. Singing Should Enchant. But To Produce This Effect There Must Be A Quality Of Soul And Voice Which Is By No Means Common Even With Great Singers.

In These Times Gain Is Not Only A Matter Of Greed, But Of Ambition.

To Be Capable Of Respect Is Almost As Rare As To Be Worthy Of It.

Order Is To Arrangement What The Soul Is To The Body, And What Mind Is To Matter.

The Evening Of A Well Spent Youth Brings It's Lamps With It.

We Are All Of Us More Or Less Echoes, Repeating Involuntarily The Virtues, The Defects, The Movements, And The Characters Of Those Among Whom We Live.

I Quit Paris Unwillingly, Because I Must Part From My Friends; And I Quit The Country Unwillingly, Because I Must Part From Myself.

We Must Respect The Past, And Mistrust The Present, If We Wish To Provide For The Safety Of The Future.

Genius Begins Great Works; Labor Alone Finishes Them.

Men Must Be Either The Slaves Of Duty, Or The Slaves Of Force.

Fancy, An Animal Faculty, Is Very Different From Imagination, Which Is Intellectual. The Former Is Passive; But The Latter Is Active And Creative. Children, The Weak Minded, And The Timid Are Full Of Fancy. Men And Women Of Intellect, Of Great Intellect, Are Alone Possessed Of Great Imagination.

Trending Author

Logan Pearsall Smith

Category