Top 100 Luc De Clapiers Quotes
#1. If virtue were its own reward, it would no longer be a human quality, but supernatural.
Luc De Clapiers
#2. Men despise great projects when they do not feel themselves capable of great successes.
Luc De Clapiers
#3. Whatever affection we have for our friends or relations, the happiness of others never suffices for our own.
Luc De Clapiers
#7. We are forced to respect the gifts of nature, which study and fortune cannot give.
Luc De Clapiers
#8. You are not born for fame if you don't know the value of time.
Luc De Clapiers
#9. We are so presumptuous that we think we can separate our personal interest from that of humanity, and slander mankind without compromising ourselves.
Luc De Clapiers
#10. The mind is the soul's eye, not its source of power. That lies in the heart, in other words, in the passions.
Luc De Clapiers
#11. The counsels of old age give light without heat, like the sun in winter.
Luc De Clapiers
#13. It is difficult to esteem a man as highly as he would wish.
Luc De Clapiers
#14. The shortness of life cannot dissuade us from its pleasures, nor console us for its pains.
Luc De Clapiers
#15. It is a great sign of mediocrity to praise always moderately.
Luc De Clapiers
#16. 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.
Luc De Clapiers
#19. There does not exist a man sufficiently intelligent never to be tiresome.
Luc De Clapiers
#20. Truth is not so threadbare as speech, because fewer people can make use of it.
Luc De Clapiers
#22. 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.
Luc De Clapiers
#23. It is easy to criticize an author, but difficult to appreciate him.
Luc De Clapiers
#24. 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!
Luc De Clapiers
#25. The counsels of the old, like the winter sun, shine, but give no heat.
Luc De Clapiers
#28. No one is more liable to make mistakes than the man who acts only on reflection.
Luc De Clapiers
#29. You must rouse into people's consciousness their own prudence and strength, if you want to raise their character.
Luc De Clapiers
#30. 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.
Luc De Clapiers
#31. The greatest evil which fortune can inflict on men is to endow them with small talents and great ambition.
Luc De Clapiers
#32. 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.
Luc De Clapiers
#33. We can console ourselves for not having great talents as we console ourselves for not having great places. We can be above both in our hearts.
Luc De Clapiers
#34. A man who love only himself and his pleasures is vain, presumptuous, and wicked even from principle.
Luc De Clapiers
#38. We should expect the best and the worst of mankind, as from the weather.
Luc De Clapiers
#39. Some are born to invent, others to embellish; but the gilder attracts more attention than the architect.
Luc De Clapiers
#40. Hatred is keener than friendship, less keen than love.
Luc De Clapiers
#42. Hatred and dishonesty generally arises from fear of being deceived.
Luc De Clapiers
#43. Our failings sometimes bind us to one another as closely as could virtue itself.
Luc De Clapiers
#44. When we feel that we lack whatever is needed to secure someone else's esteem, we are very close to hating him
Luc De Clapiers
#46. Some authors regard morality in the same light as we regard modern architecture. Convenience is the first thing to be looked for.
Luc De Clapiers
#50. Servitude degrades people to such a point that they come to like it.
Luc De Clapiers
#51. Our errors and our controversies, in the sphere of morality, arise sometimes from looking on men as though they could be altogether bad, or altogether good.
Luc De Clapiers
#52. Is it against justice or reason to love ourselves? And why is self-love always a vice?
Luc De Clapiers
#53. 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.
Luc De Clapiers
#54. It is good to be firm by temperament and pliant by reflection.
Luc De Clapiers
#55. Our opinion of others is not so variable as our opinion of ourselves.
Luc De Clapiers
#56. When we are convinced of some great truths, and feel our convictions keenly, we must not fear to express it, although others have said it before us. Every thought is new when an author expresses it in a manner peculiar to himself.
Luc De Clapiers
#58. When we are sick our virtues and our vices are in abeyance.
Luc De Clapiers
#59. Sometimes a lengthened period of prosperity melts away in a moment; just as the heat of summer flies before a day of tempest.
Luc De Clapiers
#60. None are more liable to mistakes than those who act only on second thoughts.
Luc De Clapiers
#61. Men dissimulate their dearest, most constant, and most virtuous inclination from weakness and a fear of being condemned.
Luc De Clapiers
#62. We must expect everything and fear everything from time and from men.
Luc De Clapiers
#63. 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.
Luc De Clapiers
#66. The wicked are always surprised to find ability in the good.
Luc De Clapiers
#67. Hope animates the wise, and lures the presumptuous and indolent who repose inconsiderately on her promises.
Luc De Clapiers
#71. We often quarrel with the unfortunate to get rid of pitying them.
Luc De Clapiers
#74. We are not greatly pleased that our friends should respect our good qualities if they venture to perceive our faults.
Luc De Clapiers
#75. Vice foments war; it is virtue which actually fights. If there were no virtue, we would live in peace forever.
Luc De Clapiers
#76. To execute great things, one should live as though one would never die.
Luc De Clapiers
#77. The fool is like those people who think themselves rich with little.
Luc De Clapiers
#79. It is unjust to exact that men shall do out of deference to our advice what they have no desire to do for themselves.
Luc De Clapiers
#80. Hope is the only good thing that disillusion respects.
Luc De Clapiers
#81. Whoever has seen the masked at a ball dance amicably together, and take hold of hands without knowing each other, leaving the next moment to meet no more, can form an idea of the world.
Luc De Clapiers
#82. Few people are modest enough to be estimated at their true worth.
Luc De Clapiers
#83. 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.
Luc De Clapiers
#84. 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.
Luc De Clapiers
#88. We have neither the strength nor the opportunity to accomplish all the good and all the evil which we design.
Luc De Clapiers
#89. He who seeks fame by the practice of virtue asks only for what he deserves.
Luc De Clapiers
#91. 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.
Luc De Clapiers
#93. Necessity relieves us from the embarrassment of choice.
Luc De Clapiers
#94. Reason and emotion counsel and supplement each other. Whoever heeds only the one, and puts aside the other, recklessly deprives himself of a portion of the aid granted us for the regulation of our conduct.
Luc De Clapiers
#98. We can love with all our hearts those in whom we recognize great faults. It would be impertinent to believe that perfection alone has the right to please us; sometimes our weaknesses attach us to each other as much as our virtues.
Luc De Clapiers
#99. The things we know best are the things we haven't been taught.
Luc De Clapiers
#100. We must not be timid from a fear of committing faults: the greatest fault of all is to deprive oneself of experience.
Luc De Clapiers
