French philosopher and moralist (1645-1696)
We should like those whom we love to receive all their happiness, or, if this were impossible, all their unhappiness from our hands.
JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE
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"Of the Affections", Les Caractères
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.
JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE
"Of the Gifts of Fortune", Les Caractères
We never love with all our heart and all our soul but once, and that is the first time.
JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE
"Of the Affections", Les Caractères
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.
JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE
"Of Personal Merit", Les Caractères
The Opera is obviously the first draft of a fine spectacle; it suggests the idea of one.
JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE
Les Caractères ou les Moeurs de ce siecle
When a man puts on a Character he is a stranger to, there's as much difference between what he appears, and what he is really in himself, as there is between a Vizor and a Face.
JEAN DE LA BRUYERE
The Characters or Manners of the Present Age
The favor of princes does not preclude the existence of merit, and yet does not prove that it exists.
JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE
Les Caractères
Nothing resembles today so much as tomorrow.
JEAN DE LA BRUYERE
attributed, Day's Collacon
In the world there are only two ways of raising one's self, either by one's own industry or by the weakness of others.
JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE
attributed, Forty Thousand Quotations
Love has this in common with scruples, that it becomes embittered by the reflections and the thoughts that beset us to free ourselves.
JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE
"Of the Affections", Les Caractères
Two persons will not be friends long if they are not inclined to pardon each other's little failings.
JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE
"Of Society and of Conversation", Les Caractères
Profound ignorance makes a man dogmatical.
JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE
"Of Society and of Conversation", Les Caractères
Anything is a temptation to those who dread it.
JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE
"Of Women", Les Caractères
Love begins with love ; and the warmest friendship cannot change even to the coldest love.
JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE
"Of the Affections", Les Caractères
It is a sad thing when men have neither enough intelligence to speak well nor enough sense to hold their tongues.
JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE
"Of Society and of Conversation", Les Caractères
A man must be completely wanting in intelligence if he does not show it when actuated by love, malice, or necessity.
JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE
"Of the Affections", Les Caractères
Criticism is often not a science; it is a craft, requiring more good health than wit, more hard work than talent, more habit than native genius. In the hands of a man who has read widely but lacks judgment, applied to certain subjects it can corrupt both its readers and the writer himself.
JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE
"Of Works of the Mind", Les Caractères
There are certain people who so ardently and so passionately desire a thing, that from dread of losing it they leave nothing undone to make them lose it.
JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE
"Of the Affections", Les Caractères
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.
JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE
"Of Society and of Conversation", Les Caractères
Women are at little trouble to express what they do not feel; but men are still at less to express what they do feel.
JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE
"Of Women", Les Caractères