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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.

-Jean De La Bruyere

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Young People Are Dazzled

Jean De La Bruyere

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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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

The Most Exquisite Pleasure Is Giving Pleasure To Others.

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

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.]

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

Two Quite Opposite Qualities Equally Bias Our Minds - Habits And Novelty.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.]

Outward Simplicity Befits Ordinary Men, Like A Garment Made To Measure For Them; But It Serves As An Adornment To Those Who Have Filled Their Lives With Great Deeds: They Might Be Compared To Some Beauty Carelessly Dressed And Thereby All The More Attractive.

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

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

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!

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

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

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!

To Endeavor To Forget Anyone Is A Certain Way Of Thinking Of Nothing Else.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

Genius And Great Abilities Are Often Wanting; Sometimes, Only Opportunities. Some Deserve Praise For What They Have Done; Others For What They Would Have Done.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

How Sweet, How Passing Sweet, Is Solitude!

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

It Is A Great Misfortune Not To Possess Sufficient Wit To Speak Well, Nor Sufficient Judgment To Keep Silent.

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 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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

It Requires More Than Mere Genius To Be An Author.

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

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

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

It Is Worse To Apprehend Than To Suffer.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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 Reveals His Character Even In The Simplest Things He Does.

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

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

There Is No Road Too Long To The Man Who Advances Deliberately And Without Undue Haste; There Are No Honors Too Distant To The Man Who Prepares Himself For Them With Patience.

Some Young People Do Not Sufficiently Understand The Advantages Of Natural Charms, And How Much They Would Gain By Trusting To Them Entirely. They Weaken These Gifts Of Heaven, So Rare And Fragile, By Affected Manners And An Awkward Imitation. Their Tones And Their Gait Are Borrowed; They Study Their Attitudes Before The Glass Until They Have Lost All Trace Of Natural Manner, And, With All Their Pains, They Please But Little.

A Modest Man Never Talks Of Himself.

We Never Deceive For A Good Purpose: Knavery Adds Malice To Falsehood.

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

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

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 Same Vices Which Are Huge And Insupportable In Others We Do Not Feel In Ourselves.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

Born Merely For The Purpose Of Digestion.

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

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.]

Languages Are No More Than The Keys Of Sciences. He Who Despises One, Slights The Other.

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

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

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

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?

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.

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.

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

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.

Nothing More Clearly Shows How Little God Esteems His Gift To Men Of Wealth, Money, Position And Other Worldly Goods, Than The Way He Distributes These, And The Sort Of Men Who Are Most Amply Provided With Them.

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.

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 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.]

It Is In Vain To Ridicule A Rich Fool, For The Laughers Will Be On His Side.

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

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

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

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

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 Regeneration Of Society Is The Regeneration Of Society By Individual Education.

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.

Rarely Do They Appear Great Before Their Valets.

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

To Forget Someone Means To Think Of Him.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

A Man Must Be Completely Wanting In Intelligence If He Does Not Show It When Actuated By Love, Malice, Or Necessity.

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.

They That Have Lived A Single Day Have Lived An Age.

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!

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.]

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

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

Love, Slow And Gradual In Its Growth, Is Too Much Like Friendship Ever To Be A Violent Passion.

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

Generosity Lies Less In Giving Much Than In Giving At The Right Moment.

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

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

Caprice In Women Often Infringes Upon The Rules Of Decency.

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

Modesty Is To Merit, What Shade Is To Figures In A Picture; It Gives It Strength And Makes It Stand Out.

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.

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

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 Fool Only Is Troublesome. A Plan Of Sense Perceives When He Is Agreeable Or Tiresome; He Disappears The Very Minute Before He Would Have Been Thought To Have Stayed Too Long.

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.]

The Slave Has But One Master, The Ambitious Man Has As Many As There Are Persons Whose Aid May Contribute To The Advancement Of His Fortunes.

The Finest Pleasure Is Kindness To Others.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

Life Is Too Short

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.

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.

Avoid Making Yourself The Subject Of Conversation.

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.

It Takes Talent To Please The People In A Sermon By A Flowery Style, A Cheerful Ethic, Brilliant Sallies And Lively Descriptions; But Such A Talent Is Inadequate. A Better Sort Of Talent Neglects These Extraneous Ornaments, Unworthy To Be Used In The Service Of The Gospel: Such A Preacher's Sermon Will Be Simple, Strong And Christian.

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

A Show Of A Certain Amount Of Honesty Is In Any Profession Or Business The Surest Way Of Growing Rich.

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

The Highest Reach Of A News-writer Is An Empty Reasoning On Policy, And Vain Conjectures On The Public Management.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

The Doctors Allow One To Die, The Charlatans Kill.

Out Of Difficulties Grow Miracles.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.]

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

For A Long Time Visits Among Lovers And Professions Of Love Are Kept Up Through Habit, After Their Behavior Has Plainly Proved That Love No Longer Exists.

There Are Certain People Who So Ardently And Passionately Desire A Thing, That From Dread Of Losing It They Leave Nothing Undone To Make Them Lose It.

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

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

We Need Not Envy Certain People Their Great Wealth; They Acquired It At A Heavy Cost, Which Would Not Suit Us; They Staked Their Rest, Their Health, Their Honour And Their Conscience To Acquire It, The Price Is Too High, And There Is Nothing To Be Gained By Such A Bargain.

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.

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.

Mockery Is Often The Result Of A Poverty Of Wit.

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

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