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Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues photo

“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, Marquis de Vauvenargues (1715–1747) French writer, a moralist

Source: Reflections and Maxims (1746), p. 175.

Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues photo

“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, Marquis de Vauvenargues (1715–1747) French writer, a moralist

Source: Reflections and Maxims (1746), p. 173.

Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues photo

“When a thought is too weak to be expressed simply, it should be rejected.”

Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues (1715–1747) French writer, a moralist

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues photo

“The art of pleasing is the art of deception.”

Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues (1715–1747) French writer, a moralist

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues photo

“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.”

Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues (1715–1747) French writer, a moralist

Source: Reflections and Maxims (1746), p. 179.

Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues photo

“The things we know best are the things we haven't been taught.”

Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues (1715–1747) French writer, a moralist

As quoted in Queers in History : The Comprehensive Encyclopedia of Historical Gays (2009), by Keith Stern, p. 466.

Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues photo

“It is not true that equality is a law of nature. nature has made nothing equal, her sovereign law is subordination and dependence.”

Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues (1715–1747) French writer, a moralist

Il est faux que l’égalité soit une loi de la nature. La nature n’a rien fait d’égal; la loi souveraine est la subordination et la dépendance.
Source: Reflections and Maxims (1746), p. 180.

Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues photo

“Hope deceives more men than cunning does.”

Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues (1715–1747) French writer, a moralist

L'espérance fait plus de dupes que l'habileté.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues photo

“Are we surprised if a sick man cannot walk, or keep awake, or stand upright? Would it not be more surprising if he was the same man as when he was well? If we have a headache, or have slept badly, we are excused for telling incapable of work, and yet no one suspects us of always being lazy. Shall we deny a dying man the privilege we grant a man with a headache? And dare we assert that the man who lacks courage in his last agony never possessed virtue when he was well.”

Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues (1715–1747) French writer, a moralist

Source: Reflections and Maxims (1746), p. 172.

Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues photo

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

Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues (1715–1747) French writer, a moralist

Source: Reflections and Maxims (1746), p. 180.

Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues photo

“Men dissimulate their dearest, most constant, and most virtuous inclination from weakness and a fear of being condemned.”

Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues (1715–1747) French writer, a moralist

Source: Reflections and Maxims (1746), p. 184.

Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues photo

“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, Marquis de Vauvenargues (1715–1747) French writer, a moralist

Source: Reflections and Maxims (1746), p. 174.

Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues photo

“Clarity is the good faith of philosophers”

Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues (1715–1747) French writer, a moralist

La clarté est la bonne foi des philosophes
Maxim 729, Réflexions et maximes ("Reflections and Maxims") (1746).

Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues photo

“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.”

Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues (1715–1747) French writer, a moralist

Source: Reflections and Maxims (1746), pp. 180-181.

Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues photo

“We are very wrong to think that some fault or other can exclude virtue, or to consider the alliance of good and evil as a monstrosity or an enigma.”

Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues (1715–1747) French writer, a moralist

Source: Reflections and Maxims (1746), p. 183.

Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues photo

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

Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues (1715–1747) French writer, a moralist

Source: Reflections and Maxims (1746), p. 190.

Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues photo

“Persons of rank do not talk about such trifles as the common people do; but the common people do not busy themselves about such frivolous things as do persons of rank.”

Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues (1715–1747) French writer, a moralist

Source: Reflections and Maxims (1746), pp. 181-182.

Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues photo

“He who knows how to suffer everything can dare everything.”

Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues (1715–1747) French writer, a moralist

Qui sait tout souffrir peut tout oser.
Variant: He who knows how to suffer everything can dare everything.
Source: Reflections and Maxims (1746), p. 176.

Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues photo

“To accomplish great things we must live as though we had never to die.”

Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues (1715–1747) French writer, a moralist

Pour exécuter de grandes choses, il faut vivre comme si on ne devait jamais mourir.
Quoted in Queers in History: The Comprehensive Encyclopedia of Historical Gays (2009), by Keith Stern, p. 466.
Variant: In order to achieve great things, we must live as though we were never going to die.
Source: Reflections and Maxims (1746), p. 172.

Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues photo

“Whatever affection we have for our friends or relations, the happiness of others never suffices for our own.”

Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues (1715–1747) French writer, a moralist

Source: Reflections and Maxims (1746), p. 188.