Luc de Clapiers

“The idle always have a mind to do something.”

“Wicked people are always surprised to find ability in those that are good.”

“Lazy people are always anxious to be doing something.”

“To possess taste, one must have some soul.”

“The greatest achievement of the human spirit is to live up to one's opportunities and make the most of one's resources.”

“Clearness ornaments profound thoughts.”

“Those who can bear all can dare all.”

“If people did not compliment one another there would be little society.”

“There is nothing that fear and hope does not permit men to do.”

“The fool is like those people who think themselves rich with little.”

“You are not born for fame if you don't know the value of time.”

“The greatest evil which fortune can inflict on men is to endow them with small talents and great ambition.”

“The maxims of men reveal their characters.”

“The art of pleasing is the art of deception.”

“Vice stirs up war, virtue fights.”

“Patience is the art of hoping.”

“Obscurity is the realm of error.”

“It is difficult to esteem a man as highly as he would wish.”

“One promises much, to avoid giving little.”

“To achieve great things we must live as though we were never going to die.”