Les Caractères Quotes

“Those who make the worst use of their time are the first to complain of its brevity.”
― Jean de La Bruyère, Les Caractères

“Not to be able to bear with all bad-tempered people with whom the world is crowded, shows that a man has not a good temper himself.”
― Jean de La Bruyère, Les Caractères

“The pleasure of criticism takes away from us the pleasure of being deeply moved by very fine things.”
― Jean de La Bruyère, Les Caractères

“A man is rich whose income is larger than his expenses, and he is poor if his expenses are greater than his income.”
― Jean de La Bruyère, Les Caractères

“No vice exists which does not pretend to be more or less like some virtue, and which docs not take advantage of this assumed resemblance.”
― Jean de La Bruyère, Les Caractères

“[Il ne manque cependant à l'oisiveté du sage qu'un meilleur nom, et que méditer, parler, lire, et être tranquille s'appelât travailler.]

There is, however, nothing wanting to the idleness of a philosopher but a better name, and that meditation, conversation, and reading should be called “work”.”
― Jean de La Bruyère, Les Caractères

“Une froideur ou une incivilité qui vient de ceux qui sont au-dessus de nous nous les fait haïr, mais un salut ou un sourire nous les réconcilie.”
― Jean de La Bruyère, Les Caractères

“The same common-sense which makes an author write good things, makes him dread they are not good enough to deserve reading.”
― Jean de La Bruyère, The "Characters" of Jean de la Bruyère

“Men are willing to be slaves in one place if they can only lord it in another.”
― Jean de La Bruyère, The "Characters" of Jean de La Bruyère: Enriched edition. Insightful Character Studies and Satirical Observations on Human Nature

“As favour and riches forsake a man, we discover in him the foolishness they concealed, and which no one perceived before.”
― Jean de La Bruyère, Les Caractères

“We should only endeavor to think and speak correctly ourselves, without wishing to bring others over to our taste and opinions; this would be too great an undertaking.”
― Jean de La Bruyère, Les Caractères

“Some men speak one moment before they think; others tediously study everything they say, and in conversation bore us as painfully as was the travail of their mind; they are, as it were, made up of phrases and quaint expressions, whilst their gestures are as affected as their behaviour. They call themselves “purists,”210 and do not venture to say the most trifling word not in use, however expressive it may be. Nothing comes from them worth remembering, nothing is spontaneous and unrestrained; they speak correctly,211 but they are very tiresome.”
― Jean de La Bruyère, The "Characters" of Jean de La Bruyère: Enriched edition. Insightful Character Studies and Satirical Observations on Human Nature

“A serious-minded author is not obliged to trouble his head about all the foolish sayings, the obscene remarks, and bad words that are uttered, or about the stupid constructions which some men put on certain passages of his writings; much less ought he to suppress them. He is convinced that let a man be never so careful in his writings, the insipid jokes of wretched buffoons are an unavoidable evil, since they often only turn the best things into ridicule.”
― Jean de La Bruyère, The "Characters" of Jean de La Bruyère: Enriched edition. Insightful Character Studies and Satirical Observations on Human Nature

“When a man has once got into office, he neither makes use of his reason nor of his intelligence to regulate his behaviour and manners towards others, but shapes them according to his office and his position; this is the cause of his forgetfulness, pride, arrogance, harshness, and ingratitude.”
― Jean de La Bruyère, The "Characters" of Jean de La Bruyère: Enriched edition. Insightful Character Studies and Satirical Observations on Human Nature

“The people in Paris commonly ape the court, but they do not always know how to imitate it; they by no means resemble it in those agreeable and flattering outward civilities with which some courtiers, and particularly the ladies, affably treat a man of merit, who possesses nothing but merit.”
― Jean de La Bruyère, The "Characters" of Jean de La Bruyère: Enriched edition. Insightful Character Studies and Satirical Observations on Human Nature

“Tout l'esprit qui est au monde est inutile à celui qui n'en a point : il n'a nulles vues, et il est incapable de profiter de celles d'autrui.”
― La Bruyère, Les Caractères