Jean de La Bruyère

Who was Jean de La Bruyère?

Jean de La Bruyère was a French philosopher and moralist.

Famous Quotes:

• That man is good who does good to others; if he suffers on account of the good he does, he is very good; if he suffers at the hands of those to whom he has done good, then his goodness is so great that it could be enhanced only by greater sufferings; and if he should die at their hands, his virtue can go no further: it is heroic, it is perfect.
• Making a book is a craft, like making a clock; it needs more than native wit to be an author.
• 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.
• It is fortunate to be of high birth, but it is no less so to be of such character that people do not care to know whether you are or are not.
• A man of the world must seem to be what he wishes to be thought.
• A heap of epithets is poor praise: the praise lies in the facts, and in the way of telling them.
• 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.
• As favor and riches forsake a man, we discover in him the foolishness they concealed, and which no one perceived before.
• One mark of a second-rate mind is to be always telling stories.
• 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.