“Necessity relieves us from the embarrassment of choice.”

— Vauvenargues, Reflections and Maxims (1746), Maxim 592, tr. F. G. Stevens (1940)

About Vauvenargues

1715 – 1747

French moralist, author of "Reflections and Maxims" (1746).

“Patience is the art of hoping.”

“Those who continually slander, rarely do injury: they imagine more evil than they can accomplish.”

“It is proof of a narrow mind when things worthy of esteem are distinguished from things worthy of love.”

“Let whatever appears to be the best be to you an inviolable law.”

“Lord, what fools these mortals be!”

“All that glisters is not gold.”

“Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.”

“And one man in his time plays many parts.”

“Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice.”