1. Jean de La Bruyére - “Women run to extremes, they are either better or worse than men.”
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2. Jean de La Bruyére - “He who can wait for what he desires takes
the course not to be exceedingly grieved if he fails of it; he, on the
contrary, who labors after a thing too impatiently thinks the success
when it comes is not a recompense equal to all the pains he has been at
about it.”
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3. Jean de La Bruyére - “At the beginning and at the end of love, the two lovers are embarrassed to find themselves alone.”
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4. Jean de La Bruyére - “It is the glory and merit of some men to write well and of others not to write at all.”
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5. Jean de La Bruyére - “Making a book is a craft, as is making a clock; it takes more than wit to become an author.”
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6. Jean de La Bruyére - “Time, which strengthens friendship, weakens love.”
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7. Jean de La Bruyére - “Everything has been said, and we are more than seven thousand years of human thought too late.”
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8. Jean de La Bruyére - “The slave has but one master, the
ambitious man has as many masters as there are persons whose aid may
contribute to the advancement of his fortune.”
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9. Jean de La Bruyére - “How happy the station which every moment
furnishes opportunities of doing good to thousands! How dangerous that
which every moment exposes to the injuring of millions!”
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10. Jean de La Bruyére - “No road is too long to the man who
advances deliberately and without undue haste; and no honors are too
distant for the man who prepares himself for them with patience.”
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11. Jean de La Bruyére - “Most men make use of the first part of their life to render the last part miserable.”
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12. Jean de La Bruyére - “Every man is valued in this world as he shows by his conduct that he wishes to be valued.”
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13. Jean de La Bruyére - “All men's misfortunes spring from their hatred of being alone.”
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14. Jean de La Bruyére - “Life is a tragedy for those who feel, and a comedy for those who think.”
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15. Jean de La Bruyére - “Liberality consists less in giving a great deal than in gifts well timed.”
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16. Jean de La Bruyére - “To laugh at men of sense is the privilege of fools.”
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17. Jean de La Bruyére - “There are only two ways by which to rise
in this world, either by one's own industry or by the stupidity of
others.”
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18. Jean de La Bruyére - “This great misfortune — to be incapable of solitude.”
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19. Jean de La Bruyére - “If I had my life to live over I'd like
to make more mistakes next time. I'd relax. I would limber up. I would
be sillier than I have been this trip. I would take fewer things
seriously. I would take more chances. I would climb more mountains and
swim more rivers. I would eat more ice cream and less beans. I would
perhaps have more actual trouble, but I'd have fewer imaginary ones. You
see, I'm one of those people who live sensibly and sanely hour after
hour, day after day. Oh, I've had my moments, and if I had to do it over
again, I'd have more of them. In fact, I'd try to have nothing else.
Just moments, one after another, instead of living so many years ahead
of each day.”
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20. Jean de La Bruyére - “Between good sense and good taste there is the same difference as between cause and effect.”
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21. Jean de La Bruyére - “The very impossibility which I find to prove that God is not, discovers to me his existence.”
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22. Jean de La Bruyére - “There is nothing keeps longer than a
middling fortune, and nothing melts away sooner than a great one.
Poverty treads on the heels of great and unexpected riches.”
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23. Jean de La Bruyére - “The shortest and best way to make your
fortune is to let people see clearly that it is in their interests to
promote yours.”
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24. Jean de La Bruyére - “We come too late to say anything which has not been said already.”
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25. Jean de La Bruyére - “Children have neither past nor future;
and that which seldom happens to us, they rejoice in the present.”
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