Luc de Clapiers Quotations | Page 2

The thought of death deceives us; for it causes us to neglect to live.

Neither the gifts nor the blows of fortune equal those of nature.

We are forced to respect the gifts of nature, which study and fortune cannot give.

The generality of men are so bound within the sphere of their circumstances that they have not even the courage to get out of them through their ideas, and if we see a few whom, in a way, speculation over great things makes incapable of mean ones, we find still more with whom the practice of small things takes away the feeling for great ones.

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

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

There does not exist a man sufficiently intelligent never to be tiresome.

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

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.

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