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. Jean de la Bruyere More Quotes by Jean de la Bruyere More Quotes From Jean de la Bruyere Children are overbearing, supercilious, passionate, envious, inquisitive, egotistical, idle, fickle, timid, intemperate, liars, and dissemblers; they laugh and weep easily, are excessive in their joys and sorrows, and that about the most trifling objects; they bear no pain, but like to inflict it on others; already they are men. Jean de la Bruyere pain liars children As long as men are liable to die and are desirous to live, a physician will be made fun of, but he will be well paid. Jean de la Bruyere health fun men 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. Jean de la Bruyere loss running country Tyranny has no need of arts or sciences, for its policy, which is very shallow and without any refinement, only consists in shedding blood. Jean de la Bruyere tyrants blood art Every man is valued in this world as he shows by his conduct that he wishes to be valued. Jean de la Bruyere wish appreciation men In art them is a point of perfection, as of goodness or maturity in nature; he who is able to perceive it, and who loves it, has perfect taste; he who does not feel it, or loves on this side or that, has an imperfect taste. Jean de la Bruyere maturity perfect art There are some souls so base and filthy that they love gain and interest as noble souls love fame and virtue, knowing one pleasure only, that of making money or of not losing it; anxious and avid for their ten per cent; entirely preoccupied with what is owed them; forever concerned about the depreciation or discredit of money; buried, and as it were engulfed, amid contracts, title-deeds and parchments. Such people are neither parents, friends, citizens or Christians, nor, perhaps, even men; they merely have money. Jean de la Bruyere greed soul mind A man is thirty years old before he has any settled thoughts of his fortune; it is not completed before fifty. He falls to building in his old age, and dies by the time his house is in a condition to be painted and glazed. Jean de la Bruyere men years fall False glory is the rock of vanity; it seduces men to affect esteem by things which they indeed possess, but which are frivolous, and which for a man to value himself on would be a scandalous error. Jean de la Bruyere vanity errors men What greater weakness can there be than not to know what is the source of one's being, of one's life, of one's senses, of one's knowledge, and what is to be their end? What can be more deeply disheartening than to wonder whether one's soul is, perhaps, a material thing, like a stone or a reptile, corruptible like these base creatures? Is there not more strength and greatness of mind in admitting the idea of a being superior to all other beings, who has made them all and to whom all owe their existence; of a being supremely perfect, who is pure, who had no beginning and can have no ending, of whom our soul is the image and, so to speak, a portion, being a spiritual and immortal thing? Jean de la Bruyere spiritual men ideas A party spirit betrays the greatest men to act as meanly as the vulgar herd. Jean de la Bruyere party spirit men False modesty is the masterpiece of vanity: showing the vain man in such an illusory light that he appears in the reputation of the virtue quite opposite to the vice which constitutes his real character; it is a deceit. Jean de la Bruyere real character men 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. Jean de la Bruyere small-man office men There is not in the world so toilsome a trade as the pursuit of fame; life concludes before you have so much as sketched your work. Jean de la Bruyere pursuit fame world 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. Jean de la Bruyere pain successful thinking Party loyalty lowers the greatest men to the petty level of the masses. Jean de la Bruyere party loyalty men Death happens but once, yet we feel it every moment of our lives; it is worse to dread it than to suffer it. Jean de la Bruyere moments suffering death If a secret is revealed, the person who has confided it to another is to be blamed. Jean de la Bruyere persons ifs secret Profound ignorance makes a man dogmatic. The man who knows nothing thinks he is teaching others what he has just learned himself; the man who knows a great deal can't imagine that what he is saying is not common knowledge, and speaks more indifferently. Jean de la Bruyere ignorance teaching men 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. Jean de la Bruyere disappear fool long
