Jean De La Bruyere

We perceive when love begins and when it declines by our embarrassment when alone together.

A strict observer is one who would be an atheist under an atheistic king.

There are few wives so perfect as not to give their husbands at least once a day good reason to repent of ever having married, or at least of envying those who are unmarried.

Liberality lies less in giving liberally than in the timeliness of the gift.

There are only two ways of getting on in this world: by one's own industry, or by the weakness of others.

This great misfortune - to be incapable of solitude.

The majority of men devote the greater part of their lives to making their remaining years unhappy.

There are only three events in a man's life; birth, life, and death; he is not conscious of being born, he dies in pain, and he forgets to live.

There are some who speak one moment before they think.

Hojność polega nie na tym, aby dawać dużo, ale na tym, aby dawać w odpowiedniej chwili.

Fałszywa skromność to najbardziej wyrafinowana postać próżności.

Człowiek o miernej inteligencji jest zawsze przesadnie poważny, nie śmieje się, nie żartuje, nie potrafi się cieszyć byle czym.

Nothing more clearly show how little God esteems his gift to men of wealth, money, position and other wordly goods, than the way he distributes these, and the sort of men who are most amply provided with them.- from Of Worldly Goods (1688)

Children have neither a past nor a future. Thus they enjoy the present-- which seldom happens to us.

Dzieci nie znają ani przeszłości, ani przyszłości - co nam, dorosłym, prawie się nie zdarza - toteż cieszą się teraźniejszością.