Quotes by Jean de la Bruyere

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"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."

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

"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."

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

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

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

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

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

"Time makes friendship stronger, but love weaker."

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

"There is no road too long to the man who advances deliberately and without undue haste there are no honors too distant to the man who prepares himself for them with patience."

"We should keep silent about those in power to speak well of them almost implies flattery to speak ill of them while they are alive is dangerous, and when they are dead is cowardly."

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

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

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

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

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

"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."

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

"Love and friendship exclude each other."

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

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