Jean de la Bruyere (1645-1696)

Quotes

• It is fortunate to be of high birth, but it is no less so to be of such character that people do not care to know whether you are or are not.

• Children have neither past nor future; they enjoy the present.

• The slave has but one master; the ambitious man has as many as can help him in making his fortune.

• The shortest and best ways to make your fortune is to let people see clearly that it is in their interests to promote yours.

• The slave has but one master, the ambitious man has as many as can help in making his fortune.

• Two persons cannot long be friends if they cannot forgive each other's little failings.

• All men's misfortunes spring from their hatred of being alone.

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

• We must laugh before we are happy, for fear we die before we laugh at all.

• A pious man is one who would be an athiest if the king were.

• Discourtesy does not spring merely from one bad quality, but from several--from foolish vanity, from ignorance of what is due to others, from indolence, from stupidity, from distraction of thought, from contempt of others, from jealousy.