The pleasure we feel in criticizing robs us from being moved by very beautiful things. – Jean de la Bruyere
We must laugh before we are happy, for fear of dying without having laughed at all. – Jean de la Bruyere
The passion of hatred is so long lived and so obstinate a malady that the surest sign of death in a sick person is their desire for reconciliation. – Jean de la Bruyere
Between good sense and good taste there lies the difference between a cause and its effect. – Jean de la Bruyere
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. – Jean de la Bruyere
The very impossibility in which I find myself to prove that God is not, discovers to me his existence. – Jean de la Bruyere
At the beginning and at the end of love, the two lovers are embarrassed to find themselves alone. – Jean de la Bruyere
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. – Jean de la Bruyere
One seeks to make the loved one entirely happy, or, if that cannot be, entirely wretched. – Jean de la Bruyere
If our life is unhappy it is painful to bear; if it is happy it is horrible to lose, So the one is pretty equal to the other. – Jean de la Bruyere
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. – Jean de la Bruyere
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. – Jean de la Bruyere
We can recognize the dawn and the decline of love by the uneasiness we feel when alone together. – Jean de la Bruyere
Two persons cannot long be friends if they cannot forgive each other’s little failings. – Jean de la Bruyere
Grief at the absence of a loved one is happiness compared to life with a person one hates. – Jean de la Bruyere