“No man is so perfect, so necessary to his friends, as to give them no cause to miss him less.”

— Jean de La Bruyère, Les Caractères (1688), "Du mérite personnel"

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

“Thou canst not joke an Enemy into a Friend; but thou may'st a Friend into an Enemy.”

— Benjamin Franklin

“While both are dear, piety requires us to honor truth above our friends.”

— Aristotle

“But thus do I counsel you, my friends: distrust all in whom the impulse to punish is powerful!”

— Friedrich Nietzsche

“If you would keep your Secret from an enemy, tell it not to a friend.”

— Benjamin Franklin

“Friendship is always a sweet responsibility, never an opportunity.”

— Khalil Gibran

“I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude.”

— Henry David Thoreau

“No man is so perfect, so necessary to his friends, as to give them no cause to miss him less.”

About Jean de La Bruyère

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