Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
We should like those whom we love to receive all their happiness, or, if this were impossible, all their unhappiness from our hands.
Piety with some people, but especially with women, is either a passion, or an infirmity of age, or a fashion which must be followed.
All the worth of some people lies in their name; upon a closer inspection it dwindles to nothing, but from a distance it deceives us.
When we are dead we are praised by those who survive us, though we frequently have no other merit than that of being no longer alive.
Too great carelessness, equally with excess in dress, multiplies the wrinkles of old age, and makes its decay still more conspicuous.
Love has this in common with scruples, that it becomes embittered by the reflections and the thoughts that beset us to free ourselves.
One faithful Friend is enough for a man's self, 'tis much to meet with such an one, yet we can't have too many for the sake of others.
The mind, like all other things, will become impaired, the sciences are its food,--they nourish, but at the same time they consume it.
Men regret their life has been ill-spent, but this does not always induce them to make a better use of the time they have yet to live.
It is too much for a husband to have a wife who is a coquette and sanctimonious as well; she should select only one of those qualities.
No vice exists which does not pretend to be more or less like some virtue, and which does not take advantage of this assumed resemblance.
It is not so easy to obtain a reputation by a perfect work as to enhance the value of an indifferent one by a reputation already acquired.
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.
When life is unhappy it is hard to endure, when it is happy it is terrible to think of it ending. Both amount to the same thing in the end.
Tyranny has no need of arts or sciences, for its policy, which is very shallow and without any refinement, only consists in shedding blood.
Intelligence is to genius as the whole is in proportion to its part. [Fr., Entre esprit et talent il y a la proportion du tout a sa partie.]
We dread old age, which are not sure of being able to attain. [Fr., L'on craint la vieillesse, que l'on n'est pas sur de pouvoir atteindre.]
It is fortunate to be of high birth, but it is no less so to be of such character that people do not care to know whether you are or are not.
The slave has but one master, the ambitious man has as many as there are persons whose aid may contribute to the advancement of his fortunes.
Criticism is as often a trade as a science, requiring, as it does, more health than wit, more labour than capacity, more practice than genius.
High birth is a gift of fortune which should never challenge esteem towards those who receive it, since it costs them neither study nor labor.
For a woman to be at once a coquette and a bigot is more than the humblest of husbands can bear; she should mercifully choose between the two.
Discretion is the perfection of reason, and a guide to us in all the duties of life. It is only found in men of sound sense and understanding.
Duty is what goes most against the grain, because in doing that we do only what we are strictly obliged to, and are seldom much praised for it.
They who, without any previous knowledge of us, think amiss of us, do us no harm; they attack not us, but the phantom of their own imagination.
It is a proof of boorishness to confer a favor with a bad grace; it is the act of giving that is hard and painful. How little does a smile cost?
You may drive a dog off the King's armchair, and it will climb into the preacher's pulpit; he views the world unmoved, unembarrassed, unabashed.
In Friendship we only see those faults which may be prejudicial to our friends. In love we see no faults but those by which we suffer ourselves.
There are only three events in a man's life; birth, life, and death; he is not conscious of being born, he dies in pain, and he forgets to live.
We must strive to make ourselves really worthy of some employment. We need pay no attention to anything else; the rest is the business of others.
The passion of hatred is so long lived and so obstinate a malady that the surest sign of death in a sick person is their desire for reconciliation.
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.
An egotist will always speak of himself, either in praise or in censure, but a modest man ever shuns making himself the subject of his conversation.
To what excesses do men rush for the sake of religion, of whose truth they are so little persuaded, and to whose precepts they pay so little regard!
Make me chaste and To what excesses will men not go for the sake of a religion in which they believe so little and which they practice so imperfectly!
There are certain people who so ardently and passionately desire a thing, that from dread of losing it they leave nothing undone to make them lose it.
Some people pretend they never were in love and never wrote poetry; two weaknesses which they dare not own -- one of the heart, the other of the mind.
No road is to long for him who advances slowly and does not hurry and no attainment is beyond his reach who equips himself with patience to achieve it
The majority of women have no principles of their own; they are guided by the heart, and depend for their own conduct, upon that of the men they love.
The very essence of politeness seems to be to take care that by our words and actions we make other people pleased with us as well as with themselves.
It is a sad thing when men have neither enough intelligence to speak well nor enough sense to hold their tongues; this is the root of all impertinence.
The great charm of conversation consists less in the display of one's own wit and intelligence than in the power to draw forth the resources of others.
Man has but three events in his life: to be born, to live, and to die. He is not conscious of his birth, he suffers at his death and he forgets to live.
A long disease seems to be a halting place between life and death, that death itself may be a comfort to those who die and to those who are left behind.
For a long time visits among lovers and professions of love are kept up through habit, after their behavior has plainly proved that love no longer exists.
The events we most desire do not happen; or, if they do, it is neither in the time nor in the circumstances when they would have given us extreme pleasure.
There are some extraordinary fathers, who seem, during the whole course of their lives, to be giving their children reasons for being consoled at their death.
There are but three events which concern man: birth, life and death. They are unconscious of their birth, they suffer when they die, and they neglect to live.
Eloquence may be found in conversations and in all kinds of writings; it is rarely found when looked for, and sometimes discovered where it is least expected.
It is through madness that we hate an enemy, and think of revenging ourselves; and it is through indolence that we are appeased, and do not revenge ourselves.