Luc De Clapiers Quotes

Servitude debases men to the point where they end up liking it.

Simple truths are a relief from grand speculations.

Men despise great projects when they do not feel themselves capable of great successes.

Sometimes a lengthened period of prosperity melts away in a moment; just as the heat of summer flies before a day of tempest.

One can not be just if one is not humane.

Consciousness of our powers augments them.

It is easier to say new things than to reconcile those which have already been said.

And where, on earth, dwell hope and truth? In childhood's uncorrupted heart; Alas! too soon to guileless youth The world doth its dark code impart!

Generosity gives assistance, rather than advice.

The conscience of the dying belies their life.

We are very wrong to think that some fault or other can exclude virtue, or to consider the alliance of good and evil as a monstrosity or an enigma.

Wit does not take the place of knowledge.

If passion sometimes counsels greater boldness than does reflection, it gives more strength to execute it.

Great men in teaching weak men to reflect have set them on the road to error.

We don't have enough time to premeditate our actions.

When we are convinced of some great truths, and feel our convictions keenly, we must not fear to express it, although others have said it before us. Every thought is new when an author expresses it in a manner peculiar to himself.

To possess taste, one must have some soul.

Hope animates the wise, and lures the presumptuous and indolent who repose inconsiderately on her promises.

It is no great advantage to possess a quick wit, if it is not correct; the perfection is not speed but uniformity.

The counsels of the old, like the winter sun, shine, but give no heat.

The usual pretext of those who make others unhappy is that they do it for their own good.

If it is true that vice can never be done away with, the science of government consists of making it contribute to the public good.

A new principle is an inexhaustible source of new views.

None are more liable to mistakes than those who act only on second thoughts.

To withdraw ourselves from the law of the strong, we have found ourselves obliged to submit to justice. Justice or might, we must choose between these two masters.

Prosperity makes some friends and many enemies.

The maxims of men reveal their characters.

The maxim that men are not to be praised before their death was invented by envy and too lightly adopted by philosophers. I, on the contrary, maintain that they ought to be praised in their lifetime if they merit it; but jealousy and calumny, roused against their virtue or their talent, labour to degrade them if any one ventures to bear testimony to them. It is unjust criticism that they should fear to hazard, not sincere praise.

Lazy people always intend to start doing something.

When a thought is too weak to be expressed simply, it should be rejected.

All men are born truthful and die liars.

The shortness of life cannot dissuade us from its pleasures, nor console us for its pains.

It is of no use to possess a lively wit if it is not of the right proportion: the perfection of a clock is not to go fast, but to be accurate.

Patience is the art of hoping.

Glory fills the world with virtue, and, like a beneficent sun, covers the whole earth with flowers and with fruits.

No one is more liable to make mistakes than the man who acts only on reflection.

All that is unfair, offends us if it's not beneficial for us

The greatest achievement of the human spirit is to live up to one's opportunities and make the most of one's resources.

The wicked are always surprised to find ability in the good.

When we are sick our virtues and our vices are in abeyance.

Indolence is the sleep of the mind.

Necessity relieves us from the embarrassment of choice.

All grand thoughts come from the heart.

The heaviest object in the world is the body of the woman you have ceased to love.

Some authors regard morality in the same light as we regard modern architecture. Convenience is the first thing to be looked for.

You are not born for fame if you don't know the value of time.

Constancy is the chimera of love.

Children are taught to fear and obey; the avarice, pride, or timidity of parents teaches children economy, arrogance, or submission. They are also encouraged to be imitators, a course to which they are already only too much inclined. No one thinks of making them original, courageous, independent.

If a man is endowed with a noble and courageous soul, if he is painstaking, proud, ambitious, without meanness, of a profound a deep-seated intelligence, I dare assert that he lacks nothing to be neglected by the great and men in high office, who fear, more than other men, those whom they cannot dominate.

Persons of rank do not talk about such trifles as the common people do; but the common people do not busy themselves about such frivolous things as do persons of rank.

The character of false wit is that of appearing to depend only upon reason.

Courage is adversity's lamp.

Give help rather than advice.

He who knows how to suffer everything can dare everything.

Few men have depth enough to hear or tell the truth.

A man can hardly be said to have made a fortune if he does not know how to enjoy it.

The things we know best are the things we haven't been taught.

Clarity is the counterbalance of profound thoughts.

I do not approve the maxim which desires a man to know a little of everything. Superficial knowledge, knowledge without principles, is almost always useless and sometimes harmful knowledge.

In a way, the main fault of all books is that they are too long.

It is not in everyone's power to secure wealth, office, or honors; but everyone may be good, generous, and wise.

It is a great sign of mediocrity to praise always moderately.

Our failings sometimes bind us to one another as closely as could virtue itself.

It is good to be firm by temperament and pliant by reflection.

Excessive distrust is not less hurtfJul than its opposite. Most men become useless to him who is unwilling to risk being deceived.

The fool is like those people who think themselves rich with little.

If children had teachers for judgment and eloquence just as they have for languages, if their memory was exercised less than their energy or their natural genius, if instead of deadening their vivacity of mind we tried to elevate the free scope and impulse of their souls, what might not result from a fine disposition? As it is, we forget that courage, or love of truth and glory are the virtues that matter most in youth; and our one endeavour is to subdue our children's spirits, in order to teach them that dependence and suppleness are the first laws of success in life.

Necessity moderates more troubles than reason.

If anyone accuses me of contradicting myself, I shall reply; I have been wrong once or more often, however I do not aspire to be always wrong.

It is difficult to esteem a man as highly as he would wish.

To execute great things, one should live as though one would never die.

If people did not compliment one another there would be little society.

With kings, nations, and private individuals, the strongest assume to themselves rights over the weakest, and the same rule is followed by animals, by matter, by the elements, so that everything is performed in the universe by violence. And that order which we blame with some appearance of justice is the most universal, most absolute, most unchangeable, and most ancient law of nature.

Wicked people are always surprised to find ability in those that are good.

Our errors and our controversies, in the sphere of morality, arise sometimes from looking on men as though they could be altogether bad, or altogether good.

Some of us would be greatly astonished to learn the reasons why others respect us.

Jealousy is the paralysis of love.

It is in our own mind and not in exterior objects that we perceive most things; fools know scarcely anything because they are empty, and their heart is narrow; but great souls find in themselves a number of exterior things; they have no need to read or to travel or to listen or to work to discover the highest truths; they have only to delve into themselves and search, if we may say so, their own thoughts.

Clearness marks the sincerity of philosophers.

As a house implies a builder, and a garment a weaver, and a door a carpenter, so does the existence of the Universe imply a Creator.

Our opinion of others is not so variable as our opinion of ourselves.

Those who fear men like laws.

Neither the gifts nor the blows of fortune equal those of nature.

Clearness is the ornament of deep thought.

Commerce is the school of cheating.

The fruit derived from labor is the sweetest of pleasures.

The thought of death deceives us; for it causes us to neglect to live.

Few people are modest enough to be estimated at their true worth.

We discover in ourselves what others hide from us and we recognize in others what we hide from ourselves ...

We must not be timid from a fear of committing faults: the greatest fault of all is to deprive oneself of experience.

There is nothing that fear and hope does not permit men to do.

Obscurity is the realm of error.

Activity makes more men's fortunes than cautiousness.

Everyone is born sincere and die deceivers.

We often quarrel with the unfortunate to get rid of pitying them.

The greatest evil which fortune can inflict on men is to endow them with small talents and great ambition.

Hatred and dishonesty generally arises from fear of being deceived.

The art of pleasing is the art of deception.

One promises much, to avoid giving little.

Great men undertake great things because they are great; fools, because they think them easy.