Luc de Clapiers quotes:

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

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

  • Clearness ornaments profound thoughts.

  • Clearness is the ornament of deep thought.

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

  • Great thoughts come from the heart.

  • Clarity is the counterbalance of profound thoughts.

  • The law cannot equalize mankind in spite of nature.

  • Emotions have taught mankind to reason.

  • The most absurd and reckless aspirations have sometimes led to extraordinary success.

  • Hatred and dishonesty generally arises from fear of being deceived.

  • Action makes more fortune than caution.

  • Lazy people are always anxious to be doing something.

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

  • The art of pleasing is the art of deception.

  • The lazy are always wanting to do something.

  • You must rouse into people's consciousness their own prudence and strength, if you want to raise their character.

  • The maxims of men reveal their characters.

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

  • To achieve great things we must live as though we were never going to die.

  • All grand thoughts come from the heart.

  • Persevere in the fight, struggle on, do not let go, think magnanimously of man and life, for man is good and life is affluent and fruitful.

  • Activity makes more men's fortunes than cautiousness.

  • Indolence is the sleep of the mind.

  • Men sometimes feel injured by praise because it assigns a limit to their merit; few people are modest enough not to take offense that one appreciates them.

  • Mediocre men sometimes fear great office, and when they do not aim at it, or when they refuse it, all that is to be concluded is that they are aware of their mediocrity.

  • The young suffer less from their own errors than from the cautiousness of the old.

  • The conscience of the dying belies their life.

  • One can not be just if one is not humane.

  • All men are born truthful and die liars.

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

  • Magnanimity will not consider the prudence of its motives.

  • Learn to overrule minor interest in favor of great ones, and generously to do all the good the heart prompts; a man is never injured by acting virtuously.

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

  • We are so presumptuous that we think we can separate our personal interest from that of humanity, and slander mankind without compromising ourselves.

  • Prosperity makes some friends and many enemies.

  • Prosperity makes few friends.

  • A new principle is an inexhaustible source of new views.

  • There are those who are so scrupulously afraid of doing wrong that they seldom venture to do anything.

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

  • You must maintain strength of body in order to preserve strength of mind.

  • To possess taste, one must have some soul.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • It is proof of a narrow mind when things worthy of esteem are distinguished from things worthy of love. Great minds naturally love whatever is worthy of their esteem.

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

  • Obscurity is the realm of error.

  • Patience is the art of hoping.

  • We should expect the best and the worst of mankind, as from the weather.

  • A liar is a man who does now know how to deceive, a flatterer one who only deceives fools: he who knows how to make skilful use of the truth, and understands its eloquence, can alone pride himself in cleverness.

  • A man who love only himself and his pleasures is vain, presumptuous, and wicked even from principle.

  • All erroneous ideas would perish of their own accord if given clear expression.

  • All that causes one man to differ from another is a very slight thing. What is it that is the origin of beauty or ugliness, health or weakness, ability or stupidity? A slight difference in the organs, a little more or a little less bile. Yet this more or less is of infinite importance to men; and when they think otherwise they are mistaken.

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

  • 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!

  • As it is natural to believe many things without proof, so, despite all proof, is it natural to disbelieve others.

  • As soon as an opinion becomes common it is sufficient reason for men to abandon it and to uphold the opposite opinion until that in its turn grows old, and they require to distinguish themselves by other things. Thus if they attain their goal in some art or science, we must expect them soon to cast it aside to acquire some fresh fame, and this is partly the reason why the most splendid ages degenerate so quickly, and, scarcely emerged from barbarism, plunge into it again.

  • 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.

  • Clearness marks the sincerity of philosophers.

  • Commerce is the school of cheating.

  • Conscience, the organ of feeling which dominates us and of the opinions which rule us, is presumptuous in the strong, timid in the weak and unfortunate, uneasy in the undecided.

  • Consciousness of our powers augments them.

  • Consciousness of our strength increases it.

  • Constancy is the chimera of love.

  • Courage is adversity's lamp.

  • Despair exaggerates not only our misery but also our weakness.

  • Despair is the greatest of our errors.

  • Despair puts the last touch not only to our misery but also to our weakness.

  • Every thought is new when an author expresses it in a manner peculiar to himself.

  • Everyone is born sincere and dies deceivers.

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

  • Faith is the consolation of the wretched and the terror of the happy.

  • Few maxims are true in every respect.

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

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

  • Fools do not understand men of intelligence.

  • Generosity gives assistance, rather than advice.

  • Give help rather than advice.

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

  • Great men are sometimes so even in small things.

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

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

  • Great men, like nature, use simple language.

  • Habit is everything, even in love.

  • Hatred is keener than friendship, less keen than love.

  • He who knows how to suffer everything can dare everything.

  • He who seeks fame by the practice of virtue asks only for what he deserves.

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

  • Hope deceives more men than cunning does.

  • Hope is the only good thing that disillusion respects.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • If our friends do us a service, we think they owe it to us by their title of friend. We never think that they do not owe us their friendship.

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

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

  • If virtue were its own reward, it would no longer be a human quality, but supernatural.

  • Ignorance is not lack of intelligence, nor knowledge a proof of genius.

  • In order to do great things, it is necessary to live as if one was never to die.

  • In order to protect himself from force, man was obliged to submit to justice. Justice or force: he was compelled to choose between the two masters, so little are we made to be independent.

  • Is it against justice or reason to love ourselves? And why is self-love always a vice?

  • It cannot be a vice in men to be sensible of their strength.

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

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

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

  • It is easy to criticize an author, but difficult to appreciate him.

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

  • 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.

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

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

  • 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.

  • It is sometimes easier to form a party than to attain by degrees the head of a party already formed.

  • It is unjust to exact that men shall do out of deference to our advice what they have no desire to do for themselves.

  • Lazy people always intend to start doing something.

  • Man never rises to great truths without enthusiasm.

  • Men are not to be judged by what they do not know, but by what they know, and by the manner in which they know it.

  • Men crowd into honorable careers without other vocation than their vanity, or at best their love of fame.

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

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