Luc De Clapiers Quotes

We are not greatly pleased that our friends should respect our good qualities if they venture to perceive our faults.

Obscurity is the realm of error.

Clearness marks the sincerity of philosophers.

The favorites of fortune or of fame topple from their pedestals before our eyes without diverting us from ambition.

Clarity is the counterbalance of profound thoughts.

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

Servitude degrades people to such a point that they come to like it.

Everyone is born sincere and dies deceivers.

Habit is everything, even in love.

Some are born to invent, others to embellish; but the gilder attracts more attention than the architect.

If our friends do us a service, we think they owe it to us by their title of friend. We never think that they do not owe us their friendship.

Few men have depth enough to hear or tell the truth.

Commerce is the school of cheating.

Fools do not understand men of intelligence.

We are almost always guilty of the hate we encounter.

Hatred and dishonesty generally arises from fear of being deceived.

Generosity gives assistance, rather than advice.

Hope deceives more men than cunning does.

Men sometimes feel injured by praise because it assigns a limit to their merit; few people are modest enough not to take offense that one appreciates them.

Necessity moderates more troubles than reason.

When an idea is not robust enough to stand expression in simple terms, it is a sign that it should be rejected.

Mediocre men sometimes fear great office, and when they do not aim at it, or when they refuse it, all that is to be concluded is that they are aware of their mediocrity.

The idle always have a mind to do something.

It is good to be firm by temperament and pliant by reflection.

He who seeks fame by the practice of virtue asks only for what he deserves.

The common excuse for those bringing misfortune on others is that they desire their good.

If virtue were its own reward, it would no longer be a human quality, but supernatural.

Great men undertake great things because they are great; fools, because they think them easy.

Excessive distrust is not less hurtfJul than its opposite. Most men become useless to him who is unwilling to risk being deceived.

Few maxims are true in every respect.

A new principle is an inexhaustible source of new views.

Sometimes a lengthened period of prosperity melts away in a moment; just as the heat of summer flies before a day of tempest.

To possess taste, one must have some soul.

Great men, like nature, use simple language.

If anyone accuses me of contradicting myself, I shall reply; I have been wrong once or more often, however I do not aspire to be always wrong.

Clearness is the ornament of deep thought.

In a way, the main fault of all books is that they are too long.

Necessity embitters the evils which it cannot cure.

Despair exaggerates not only our misery but also our weakness.

There does not exist a man sufficiently intelligent never to be tiresome.

We are less hurt by the contempt of fools than by the lukewarm approval of men of intelligence.

The wicked are always surprised to find that the good can be clever.

As a house implies a builder, and a garment a weaver, and a door a carpenter, so does the existence of the Universe imply a Creator.

When we feel that we lack whatever is needed to secure someone else's esteem, we are very close to hating him

Reason deceives us more often than does nature.

None are more liable to mistakes than those who act only on second thoughts.

The best things are the most common.

Men are not to be judged by what they do not know, but by what they know, and by the manner in which they know it.

Our virtues are dearer to us the more we have had to suffer for them. It is the same with our children. All profound affection admits a sacrifice.

The heaviest object in the world is the body of the woman you have ceased to love.