Quotes & anectdotes from
the wise,
the foolish,
the courageous &
the drunk

Jean de la Bruyere Author

  • Gender: Male
  • Citizenship: France
  • Born: Aug 16, 1645
  • Died: May 11, 1696

Jean de La Bruyère (French pronunciation: [ʒɑ̃dÉ™labʁyˈjɛʁ]) (August 16, 1645 - May 10, 1696) was a French essayist and moralist.

La Bruyère was born in Paris, (not, as was once thought, at Dourdan (in today's Essonne département)) in 1645. His family was middle class, and his reference to a certain Geoffroy de La Bruyère, a crusader, is only a satirical illustration of a method of self-ennoblement common in France as in some other countries. Indeed he himself always signed the name Delabruyère in one word, as evidence of this. He could trace his family back at least as far as his great-grandfather, who had been a strong Leaguer. La Bruyère's own father was controller general of finance to the Hôtel de Ville.

Marriage, it seems, confines every man to his proper rank.

Avoid lawsuits beyond all things they pervert your conscience, impair your health, and dissipate your property.

If some persons died, and others did not die, death would be a terrible affliction.

Children enjoy the present because they have neither a past nor a future.

Time makes friendship stronger, but love weaker.

We can recognize the dawn and the decline of love by the uneasiness we feel when alone together.

Those who make the worst use of their time are the first to complain of its shortness.

It's motive alone which gives character to the actions of men.

They that have lived a single day have lived an age.

It is a sad thing when men have neither the wit to speak well nor the judgment to hold their tongues.

The sweetest of all sounds is that of the voice of the woman we love.

We must laugh before we are happy, for fear of dying without having laughed at all.

The regeneration of society is the regeneration of society by individual education.

There are certain things in which mediocrity is not to be endured, such as poetry, music, painting, public speaking.

Grief at the absence of a loved one is happiness compared to life with a person one hates.

The exact contrary of what is generally believed is often the truth.

Children have neither a past nor a future. Thus they enjoy the present, which seldom happens to us.

At the beginning and at the end of love, the two lovers are embarrassed to find themselves alone.

Love and friendship exclude each other.

The wise person often shuns society for fear of being bored.

We perceive when love begins and when it declines by our embarrassment when alone together.

All of our unhappiness comes from our inability to be alone.

We should laugh before being happy, for fear of dying without having laughed.

All men's misfortunes spring from their hatred of being alone.

It is boorish to live ungraciously: the giving is the hardest part what does it cost to add a smile?

Logic is the technique by which we add conviction to truth.