Joseph Joubert Quotes
There are people who are virtuous only in a piece-meal way; virtue is a fabric from which they never make themselves a whole garment.
Ideas never lack for words. It is words that lack ideas. As soon as the idea has come to its last degree of perfection, the word blossoms.
One day, a daughter of Aristotle, Pythias by name, was asked what color pleased her most. She replied, "The color with which modesty suffuses the face of simple, inoffensive men.
Be saving, but not at the cost of all liberality. Have the soul of a king and the hand of a wise economist.
We shall always keep a spare corner in our heads to give passing hospitality to our friends' opinion.
History needs distance, perspective. Facts and events which are too well attested cease, in some sort, to be malleable.
God multiplies intelligence, which communicates itself, like fire, ad infinitum. Light a thousand torches at one touch, the flame remains always the same.
There is graciousness and a kind of urbanity in beginning with men by esteem and confidence. It proves, at least, that we have long lived in good company with others and with our selves.
Maxims are to the intellect what laws are to actions; they do not enlighten, but they guide and direct, and, although themselves blind, are protective.
The dregs may stir themselves as they please; they fall back to the bottom by their own coarseness.
Those for whom the world is not enough: saints, conquerors, poets, and all lovers of books.
Through memory we travel against time, through forgetfulness we follow its course.
