“Old age deprives the intelligent man only of qualities useless to wisdom.”

About Joseph Joubert

1754 – 1824

French moralist and essayist, author of the "Pensées".

“We comprehend the earth only when we have known heaven.”

“Some find activity only in repose, and others repose only in movement.”

“When you go in search of honey you must expect to be stung by bees.”

“The older I grow, the more I distrust the familiar doctrine that age brings wisdom.”

“The young have exalted notions, because they have not been humbled by life or learned its necessary limitations.”

“My loneliness was born when men praised my talkative faults and blamed my silent virtues.”

“Not to know what happened before you were born is to be a child forever.”

“No man who knows aught, can be so stupid to deny that all men naturally were born free.”

“Do you know that Old Age may come after you, with equal grace, force, fascination?”