Poverty may be the mother of crime, but lack of good sense is the father.
Jean de la Bruyere

The court is like a palace of marble; it's composed of people very hard and very polished.
Jean de la Bruyere

The exact contrary of what is generally believed is often the truth.
Jean de la Bruyere

The first day one is a guest, the second a burden, and the third a pest.
Jean de la Bruyere

The giving is the hardest part; what does it cost to add a smile?
Jean de la Bruyere

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.
Jean de la Bruyere

The Opera is obviously the first draft of a fine spectacle; it suggests the idea of one.
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

The pleasure we feel in criticizing robs us from being moved by very beautiful things.
Jean de la Bruyere

The regeneration of society is the regeneration of society by individual education.
Jean de la Bruyere

The slave has but one master, the ambitious man has as many as there are persons whose aid may contribute to the advancement of his fortunes.
Jean de la Bruyere

The sweetest of all sounds is that of the voice of the woman we love.
Jean de la Bruyere

The wise person often shuns society for fear of being bored.
Jean de la Bruyere

There are certain things in which mediocrity is not to be endured, such as poetry, music, painting, public speaking.
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

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.
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

They that have lived a single day have lived an age.
Jean de la Bruyere

This great misfortune - to be incapable of solitude.
Jean de la Bruyere

Those who make the worst use of their time are the first to complain of its shortness.
Jean de la Bruyere