Out of difficulties grow miracles.
Jean de la Bruyere
The sweetest of all sounds is that of the voice of the woman we love.
Those who make the worst use of their time are the first to complain of its shortness.
There is no road too long to the man who advances deliberately and without undue haste; there are no honors too distant to the man who prepares himself for them with patience.
All men's misfortunes spring from their hatred of being alone.
The first day one is a guest, the second a burden, and the third a pest.
Two persons cannot long be friends if they cannot forgive each other's little failings.
At the beginning and at the end of love, the two lovers are embarrassed to find themselves alone.
Children have neither a past nor a future. Thus they enjoy the present, which seldom happens to us.
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.
Poverty may be the mother of crime, but lack of good sense is the father.
When a work lifts your spirits and inspires bold and noble thoughts in you, do not look for any other standard to judge by: the work is good, the product of a master craftsman.
A slave has but one master; an ambitious man has as many masters as there are people who may be useful in bettering his position.
There are certain things in which mediocrity is not to be endured, such as poetry, music, painting, public speaking.
All of our unhappiness comes from our inability to be alone.
It is a sad thing when men have neither the wit to speak well nor the judgment to hold their tongues.
The exact contrary of what is generally believed is often the truth.
He who tip-toes cannot stand; he who strides cannot walk.
The wise person often shuns society for fear of being bored.
Next to sound judgment, diamonds and pearls are the rarest things in the world.
Love and friendship exclude each other.
A position of eminence makes a great person greater and a small person less.
It's motive alone which gives character to the actions of men.
When a book raises your spirit, and inspires you with noble and manly thoughts, seek for no other test of its excellence. It is good, and made by a good workman.
Man has but three events in his life: to be born, to live, and to die. He is not conscious of his birth, he suffers at his death and he forgets to live.
To be among people one loves, that's sufficient; to dream, to speak to them, to be silent among them, to think of indifferent things; but among them, everything is equal.
Avoid lawsuits beyond all things; they pervert your conscience, impair your health, and dissipate your property.
The pleasure we feel in criticizing robs us from being moved by very beautiful things.
Logic is the technique by which we add conviction to truth.
Politeness makes one appear outwardly as they should be within.
This great misfortune - to be incapable of solitude.
We must laugh before we are happy, for fear of dying without having laughed at all.
We should keep silent about those in power; to speak well of them almost implies flattery; to speak ill of them while they are alive is dangerous, and when they are dead is cowardly.
It is boorish to live ungraciously: the giving is the hardest part; what does it cost to add a smile?
The great gift of conversation lies less in displaying it ourselves than in drawing it out of others. He who leaves your company pleased with himself and his own cleverness is perfectly well pleased with you.
A man can keep another's secret better than his own. A woman her own better than others.
We can recognize the dawn and the decline of love by the uneasiness we feel when alone together.
The very impossibility in which I find myself to prove that God is not, discovers to me his existence.
Time makes friendship stronger, but love weaker.
If some persons died, and others did not die, death would be a terrible affliction.
Children enjoy the present because they have neither a past nor a future.
A pious man is one who would be an atheist if the king were.
A vain man finds it wise to speak good or ill of himself; a modest man does not talk of himself.
There is not in the world so toilsome a trade as the pursuit of fame; life concludes before you have so much as sketched your work.
Everything has been said, and we are more than seven thousand years of human thought too late.
As favor and riches forsake a man, we discover in him the foolishness they concealed, and which no one perceived before.
Marriage, it seems, confines every man to his proper rank.
Grief at the absence of a loved one is happiness compared to life with a person one hates.
Men blush less for their crimes than for their weaknesses and vanity.
They that have lived a single day have lived an age.
