Joseph Joubert Quotes

How many books there are whose reputation is made that would not obtain it were it now to make?

Young authors give their brains much exercise and little food.

Genuine bon mots surprise those from whose lips they fall, no less than they do those who listen to them.

Grace imitates modesty, as politeness imitates kindness.

When credulity comes from the heart it does no harm to the intellect.

In the interchange of thought use no coin but gold and silver.

Words become luminous when the poet's finger has passed over them its phosphorescence.

To be an agreeable guest one need only enjoy oneself.

A temperate style is alone classical.

The Bible remained for me a book of books, still divine - but divine in the sense that all great books are divine which teach men how to live righteously.

Ornaments were invented by modesty.

Let us be men with men, and always children before God; for in His eyes we are but children. Old age itself, in presence of eternity, is but the first moment of a morning.

Antiquity! I like its ruins better than its reconstructions.

Virtue by calculation is the virtue of vice.

To teach is to learn twice. About all some parents accomplish in life is to send a child to Harvard. The purpose of a liberal education is to make one's mind a pleasant place to spend one's leisure.

The soul that is the abode of chastity acquires an energy which enables her to surmount with ease the obstacles that lie along the path of duty.

Space is the stature of God.

Religion is fire which example keeps alive, and which goes out if not communicated.

Religion is neither a theology nor a theosophy; it is more than that, it is a discipline, a law, a yoke, an indissoluble engagement.

Religion is the only metaphysic that the multitude can understand and adopt.

A man who shows no defect is a fool or a hypocrite, whom we should mistrust. There are defects so bound to fine qualities that they announce them,--defects which it is well not to correct.

Politeness smooths wrinkles.

In temperance there is ever cleanliness and elegance.

In bringing up a child, think of its old age.

Moderation consists in being moved as angels are moved.

There are some men who are witty when they are in a bad humor, and others only when they are sad.

Ideas never lack for words. It is words that lack ideas.

The mind is the atmosphere of the soul.

Genius begins beautiful works, but only labor finishes them.

Poetry is to be found nowhere unless we carry it within us.

Good impulses are naught, unless they become good actions.

Attention is like a narrow mouthed vessel; pour into it what you have to say cautiously, and, as it were, drop by drop.

TIME and truth are friends, though there are many moments hostile to truth.

The mind's direction is more important than its progress.

It is not my words that I polish, but my ideas.

All are born to observe order, but few are born to establish it.

Happy is the man who can do only one thing; in doing it, he fulfills his destiny.

Nothing which does not transport is poetry. The lyre is a winged instrument.

Without duty, life is soft and boneless.

All luxury corrupts either the morals or the taste.

Remorse is the punishment of crime; repentance, its expiation. The former appertains to a tormented conscience; the latter to a soul changed for the better.

Education should be gentle and stern, not cold and lax.

What can you possibly add to a mind that's full, especially one that's full of itself.

Proverbs may be said to be the abridgment of wisdom.

In clothes clean and fresh there is a kind of youth with which age should surround itself.

Science confounds everything; it gives to the flowers an animal appetite, and takes away from even the plants their chastity.

Haughty people seem to me to have, like the dwarfs, the stature of a child and the face of a man.

You want to talk to someone; first open your ears.

If you are poor, distinguish yourself by your virtues; if rich, by your good deeds.

Everything that is exact is short.