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A slave has but one master. An ambitious man has as many as there are people who helped him get his fortune.
Topic: Ambition
Source: None
|
Men blush less for their crimes than for their weaknesses and
vanity.
[Fr., Les hommes rougissent moins de leur crimes que de leurs
faiblesses et de leur vanite.]
Topic: Blushes
Source: Les Caracteres (II)
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Children have neither past nor future; and that which seldom happens to us, they rejoice in the present.
Topic: Children
Source: None
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You think him to be your dupe; if he feigns to be so who is the
greater dupe, he or you?
[Fr., Vous le croyez votre dupe: s'il feint de l'etre, qui est
plus dupe, de lui ou de vous?]
Topic: Deceit
Source: Les Caracteres (V)
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We never deceive for a good purpose: knavery adds malice to
falsehood.
[Fr., On ne trompe point en bien; la fourberie ajoute la malice
au mensonge.]
Topic: Deceit
Source: Les Caracteres (XI)
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Liberality consists less in giving a great deal than in gifts well-timed.
Topic: Generosity
Source: None
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Rarely do they appear great before their valets.
[Fr., Rarement ils sont grands vis-a-vis de leur
valets-de-chambre.]
Topic: Heroes
Source: Les Caracteres
|
When a man puts on a Character he is a stranger to, there's as
much difference between what he appears, and what he is really in
himself, as there is between a VIzor and a Face.
Topic: Hypocrisy
Source: The Characters or Manners of the Present Age (ch. XI)
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The rarest things in the world, next to a spirit of discernment,
are diamonds and pearls.
[Fr., Apres l'esprit de discernement, ce qu'il y a au monde de
plus rare, ce sont les diamants et les perles.]
Topic: Jewels
Source: Les Caracteres (XII)
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A judge's duty is to grant justice, but his practice is to delay
it: even those judges who know their duty adhere to the general
practice.
[Fr., Le devoir des juges est de rendre justice, leur metier est
de la differer; quelques uns savent leur devoir, et font leur
metier.]
Topic: Judges
Source: Les Caracteres
|
We must laugh before we are happy, for fear we die before we
laugh at all.
Topic: Laughter
Source: The Characters or Manners of the Present Age (ch. IV)
|
Languages are no more than the keys of Sciences. He who despises
one, slights the other.
Topic: Linguists
Source: The Characters or Manners of the Present Age (ch. XII)
|
The favor of princes does not preclude the existence of merit,
and yet does not prove that it exists.
[Fr., La faveur des princes n'exclut pas le merite, et ne le
suppose pas aussi.]
Topic: Merit
Source: Les Caracteres (XII)
|
The same principle leads us to neglect a man of merit that
induces us to admire a fool.
[Fr., Du meme fonds dont on neglige un homme de merite l'on sait
encore admirer un sot.]
Topic: Merit
Source: Les Caracteres (XII)
|
Out of difficulties grow miracles.
Topic: Miracles
Source: None
|
All men's misfortunes spring from their hatred of being alone.
Topic: Misfortune
Source: None
|
Modesty is to merit, what shade is to figures in a picture; it
gives it strength and makes it stand out.
Topic: Modesty
Source: The Characters or Manners of the Present Age (ch. II, sec. 17)
|
The rarest things in the world, next to a spirit of discernment,
are diamonds and pearls.
[Fr., Apres l'esprit de discernement, ce qu'il y a au monde de
plus rare, ce sont les diamants et les perles.]
Topic: Pearls
Source: Les Caracteres (XII)
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The court is like a palace built of marble; I mean that it is
made up of very hard but very polished people.
[Fr., La cour est comme un edifice bati de marbre; je veux dire
qu'elle est composee d'hommes fort durs mais fort polis.]
Topic: Royalty
Source: Les Caracteres (VIII)
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We trust our secrets to our friends, but they escape from us in
love.
[Fr., L'on confie son secret dans l'amitie, mais il echappe dans
l'amour.]
Topic: Secrecy
Source: Les Caracteres (IV)
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When a secret is revealed, it is the fault of the man who
confided it.
Topic: Secrecy
Source: Les Caracteres (V)
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If Poverty is the Mother of Crimes, want of Sense is the Father.
Topic: Sense
Source: The Characters or Manners of the Present Age (vol. II, ch. II)
|
Between good sense and good taste there is the difference between
cause and effect.
[Fr., Entre le bon sens et le bon gout il y a la difference de la
cause a son effet.]
Topic: Sense
Source: Les Caracteres (XII)
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The wise man sometimes flees from society from fear of being
bored.
Topic: Society
Source: Les Caracteres (V)
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