Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues quotes

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Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues

Birthdate: 6. August 1715
Date of death: 28. May 1747
Other names: Luc de Vauvenargues, Luc Clapiers De Vauvenargues, Luc de Clapiers Vauvenargues, Luc de Clapiers, markíz z Vauvenargues, Luc De Clapiers, Marchese di Vauvenargues

Luc de Clapiers, marquis de Vauvenargues was a French writer and moralist. He died at age 31, in broken health, having published the year prior—anonymously—a collection of essays and aphorisms with the encouragement of Voltaire, his friend. He first received public notice under his own name in 1797, and from 1857 on, his aphorisms became popular. In the history of French literature, his significance lies chiefly in his friendship with Voltaire . Wikipedia

Photo: Charles Amedée Colin (1808-1873), http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:LucdeClapiers-marquisdeVauvenarges.jpg. Upload: Mathsci / CC0

Quotes Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues

„As it is natural to believe many things without proof, so, despite all proof, is it natural to disbelieve others.“

— Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues

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

Nature

„It is good to be firm by temperament and pliant by reflection.“

— Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues

Source: Reflections and Maxims (1746), p. 176.

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

— Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues

Source: Reflections and Maxims (1746), p. 187.

Men

„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, Marquis de Vauvenargues

Source: Reflections and Maxims (1746), p. 187.

Truth, Fear, Feeling

„Faith is the consolation of the wretched and the terror of the happy.“

— Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues

La foi est la consolation des misérables et la terreur des heureux.
Source: Reflections and Maxims (1746), p. 184.

Faith, Happiness

„Superficial knowledge … is hurtful to those who possess true genius; for it necessarily draws them away from their main object, wastes their industry over details and subjects foreign to their needs and natural talent, and lastly does not serve, as they flatter themselves, to prove the breadth of their mind. In all ages there have been men of very moderate intelligence who knew much, and so on the contrary, men of the highest intelligence who knew very little. Ignorance is not lack of intelligence, nor knowledge a proof of genius.“

— Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues

Source: Reflections and Maxims (1746), p. 178.

Men, Age, Intelligence, Nature

„With kings, nations, and private individuals, the strongest assume to themselves rights over the weakest, and the same rule is followed by animals, by matter, by the elements, so that everything is performed in the universe by violence. And that order which we blame with some appearance of justice is the most universal, most absolute, most unchangeable, and most ancient law of nature.“

— Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues

Source: Reflections and Maxims (1746), p. 176.

Justice, Law, Nature, Universe

„Young people suffer less from their faults than from the prudence of the old.“

— Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues

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

People, Suffering

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

— Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues

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

Nature, Study

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

— Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues

La pensée de la mort nous trompe, car elle nous fait oublier de vivre.
Source: Reflections and Maxims (1746), p. 172.

Death

„Emotion has taught mankind to reason.“

— Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues

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

„If passion sometimes counsels greater boldness than does reflection, it gives more strength to execute it.“

— Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues

Source: Reflections and Maxims (1746), pp. 170-171.

Passion

„Those who fear men like laws.“

— Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues

Réflexions (1746).
Variant: Those who fear men love the laws.

Men, Fear, Law

„Children are … encouraged to be imitators, a course to which they are already too much inclined. No one thinks of making them original, courageous, independent.“

— Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues

Source: Reflections and Maxims (1746), p. 185.

Children, Courage, Thinking

„It is of no use to possess a lively wit if it is not of the right proportion: the perfection of a clock is not to go fast, but to be accurate.“

— Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues

Source: Reflections and Maxims (1746), p. 177.

Perfection

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

— Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues

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

Happiness

„Patience is the art of hoping.“

— Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues

La patience est l’art d’espérer.
Source: Reflections and Maxims (1746), p. 180.

Hope, Art, Patience

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

— Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues

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.

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

— Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues

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.

Suffering

„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

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

People, Business, Personality