“A judge's duty is to grant justice, but his practice is to delay it: even those judges who know their duty adhere to the general practice.” KnowsJusticePracticeJudgingDutyGrantsDelayGeneral Practice Author:Jean de la Bruyere
“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.” ThinkingKnowsMenSpeakDealsCommonImagineTeachingIgnoranceHe ManSpeechProfoundImagine ThatDogmaticCommon KnowledgeTeaching Others Author:Jean de la Bruyere
“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.” IfsThinkingKnowsFeelsDoePainDesireCertainWaitingKnow HowSuccessfulFailingContraryDesperateImpatientObtaining Author:Jean de la Bruyere
“A man who knows how to make good bargains or finds his money increase in his coffers, thinks presently that he has a good deal of brains and is almost fit to be a statesman.” ThinkingKnowsMenDealsBrainKnow HowFitIncreaseBargainsStatesmen Author:Jean de la Bruyere
“How many men are like trees, already strong and full grown, which are transplanted into some gardens, to the astonishment of those people who behold them in these fine spots, where they never saw them grow, and who neither know their beginning nor their progress!” PeopleKnowsMenStrongGrowsSawsProgressTreeFineGardenSpotsAstonishment Author:Jean de la Bruyere
“The best thing next to wit is a consciousness that it is not in us; without wit, a man might then know how to behave himself, so as not to appear to be a fool or a coxcomb.” KnowsMenMightNextConsciousnessKnow HowFoolWitBest ThingsBehave Author:Jean de la Bruyere
“An inconstant woman is one who is no longer in love; a false woman is one who is already in love with another person; a fickle woman is she who neither knows whom she loves nor whether she loves or not; and the indifferent woman, one who does not love at all.” KnowsPersonsDoeWomenIndifferentFickle Author:Jean de la Bruyere
“A man who knows the court is master of his gestures, of his eyes and of his face; he is profound, impenetratable; he dissimulates bad offices, smiles at his enemies, controls his irritation, disguises his passions, belies his heartm speaks and acts against his feelings.” KnowsMenFeelingsEyeFacesPassionSpeakEnemyMastersOfficeCourtProfoundHis EyesGesturesDisguiseIrritation Author:Jean de la Bruyere
“A well-born man is fortunate, but so is the man about whom people no longer ask, 'is he well-born?'” PeopleKnowsCharacterCareBirthFortunateThrive Author:Jean de la Bruyere
“False greatness is unsociable and remote: conscious of its own frailty, it hides, or at least averts its face, and reveals itself only enough to create an illusion and not be recognized as the meanness that it really is. True greatness is free, kind, familiar and popular; it lets itself be touched and handled, it loses nothing by being seen at close quarters; the better one knows it, the more one admires it.” KnowsKindEnoughFacesPoliticalPoliticsLosesGreatnessIllusionConsciousFamiliarAdmireTouchedQuartersMeannessFrailtyAvertTrue Greatness Author:Jean de la Bruyere
“We seek our happiness outside ourselves, and in the opinion of men we know to be flatterers, insincere, unjust, full of envy, caprice and prejudice.” KnowsMenOpinionPrejudiceEnvyUnjustCapriceFlattererInsincere Author:Jean de la Bruyere
“From time to time there appear on the face of the earth men of rare and consummate excellence, who dazzle us by their virtue, and whose outstanding qualities shed a stupendous light. Like those extraordinary stars of whose origins we are ignorant, and of whose fate, once they have vanished, we know even less, such men have neither forebears nor descendants: they are the whole of their race.” KnowsMenWholeLightEarthFacesStarsRaceQualityVirtueFateExcellenceExtraordinaryIgnorantShedOutstandingDescendantsDazzle Author:Jean de la Bruyere
“We seldom repent of speaking little, very often of speaking too much: a vulgar and trite maxim, which all the world knows and, but which all the world does not practice” KnowsWorldLittlesDoePracticeToo MuchSpeechVulgarRepentMaxims Author:Jean de la Bruyere
“A man may have intelligence enough to excel in a particular thing and lecture on it, and yet not have sense enough to know he ought to be silent on some other subject of which he has but a slight knowledge; if such an illustrious man ventures beyond the bounds of his capacity, he loses his way and talks like a fool.” IfsKnowsMenWayMayEnoughLosesSubjectsParticularFoolOughtCapacitySilentBoundsVentureLecturesSpecialization Author:Jean de la Bruyere
