A biography for Jean de la Bruyerehasn’t been written yet.
“One seeks to make the loved one entirely happy, or, if that cannot be, entirely wretched.”
“Liberality consists less in giving a great deal than in gifts well-timed.”
“Marriage, it seems, confines every man to his proper rank.”
“The court is like a palace of marble; it's composed of people very hard and very polished.”
“If some persons died, and others did not die, death would be a terrible affliction.”
“He who tip-toes cannot stand; he who strides cannot walk.”
“It is boorish to live ungraciously: the giving is the hardest part; what does it cost to add a smile?”
“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.”
“Love and friendship exclude each other.”
“There are certain things in which mediocrity is not to be endured, such as poetry, music, painting, public speaking.”
“If our life is unhappy it is painful to bear; if it is happy it is horrible to lose, So the one is pretty equal to the other.”
“A man of the world must seem to be what he wishes to be thought.”
“The exact contrary of what is generally believed is often the truth.”
“The very impossibility in which I find myself to prove that God is not, discovers to me his existence.”
“A man can keep another's secret better than his own. A woman her own better than others.”
“It is a sad thing when men have neither the wit to speak well nor the judgment to hold their tongues.”
“A vain man finds it wise to speak good or ill of himself; a modest man does not talk of himself.”
“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.”
“The great gift of conversation lies less in displaying it ourselves than in drawing it out of others. He who leaves your company pleased with himself and his own cleverness is perfectly well pleased with you.”
“A mediocre mind thinks it writes divinely; a good mind thinks it writes reasonably.”