“Whatever affection we have for our friends or relations, the happiness of others never suffices for our own.”

— Vauvenargues, Reflections and Maxims (1746), tr. E. Lee (1903)

About Vauvenargues

1715 – 1747

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

“Patience is the art of hoping.”

“Necessity relieves us from the embarrassment of choice.”

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

Attribution note: Source disputed or unverified.

“To be kind to all, to like many and love a few, to be needed and wanted by those we love, is certainly the nearest we can come to happiness.”

Attribution note: Source disputed or unverified.

“The best people in life are free.”

“Whoever is happy will make others happy too.”

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

“For God made all mankind to be happy, to be serene.”

“Love the little trade which thou hast learned, and be content therewith.”