“As favor and riches forsake a man, we discover in him the foolishness they concealed, and which no one perceived before.”

— Jean de La Bruyère, Les Caractères (1688), "Des biens de fortune"

About Jean de La Bruyère

1645 – 1696

French moralist, author of "Les Caractères" (1688).

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“There is no road too long to the man who advances deliberately and without undue haste; there are no honours too distant to the man who prepares himself for them with patience.”

— Jean de La Bruyère

“We come too late to say anything which has not been said already.”

— Jean de La Bruyère

“Making a book is a craft, like making a clock; it needs more than native wit to be an author.”

— Jean de La Bruyère

“The unexamined life is not worth living.”

— Socrates

“It is unlikely that the good of a snail should reside in its shell: so is it likely that the good of a man should?”

— Epictetus

“In theory there is nothing to hinder our following what we are taught; but in life there are many things to draw us aside.”

— Epictetus

“If to do were as easy as to know what were good to do, chapels had been churches, and poor men's cottages princes' palaces.”

— William Shakespeare

“That which makes the man no worse than he was makes his life no worse: it has no power to harm, without or within.”

— Marcus Aurelius

“Always take the short cut; and that is the rational one. Therefore say and do everything according to soundest reason.”

— Marcus Aurelius

“As favor and riches forsake a man, we discover in him the foolishness they concealed, and which no one perceived before.”

About Jean de La Bruyère

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