Lofty posts make great men greater still, and small men much smaller.
Jean de La Bruyère
All the Secrets of the Universe and Some Really Important Stuff Too!
Lofty posts make great men greater still, and small men much smaller.
Jean de La Bruyère
Generosity lies less in giving much than in giving at the right moment.
Jean de La Bruyère
We must laugh before we are happy, for fear we die before we laugh at all.
Jean de La Bruyère
There are only two ways of getting on in the world: by one’s own industry, or by the stupidity of others.
Jean de La Bruyère
One seeks to make the loved one entirely happy, or, if that cannot be, entirely wretched.
Jean de La Bruyère
Making a book is a craft, like making a clock; it needs more than native wit to be an author.
Jean de La Bruyère
We come too late to say anything which has not been said already.
Jean de La Bruyère
Life is a tragedy for those who feel, and a comedy for those who think.
Jean de La Bruyère
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!
Jean de La Bruyère