“Horace or Boileau have said such a thing before you.”—”I take your word for it, but I have used it as my own. May I not have the same correct thought after them, as others may have after me?”

Horace ou Despréaux l'a dit avant vous.—Je le crois sur votre parole; mais je l'ai dit comme mien. Ne puis-je pas penser après eux une chose vraie, et que d'autres encore penseront après moi?
Aphorism 69
Les Caractères (1688), Des Ouvrages de l'Esprit

Original

Horace ou Despréaux l'a dit avant vous.—Je le crois sur votre parole; mais je l'ai dit comme mien. Ne puis-je pas penser après eux une chose vraie, et que d'autres encore penseront après moi?

Les Caractères (1688), Des Ouvrages de l'Esprit

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Horace or Boileau have said such a thing before you.”—”I take your word for it, but I have used it as my own. May I not…" by Jean de La Bruyère?
Jean de La Bruyère photo
Jean de La Bruyère 65
17th-century French writer and philosopher 1645–1696

Related quotes

Titian photo

“Your Ceasarean Majesty, I consigned to senõr Don Diego di Mendoza, the two portraits of the most serene Empress [ Isabella ], in which I have used all the diligence of which I was capable. I should have liked to take them to your Majesty in person, but that my age and the length of the journey forbade such a course. I beg your Majesty to send me words of the faults or failings which I may have made, and return the pictures that I may correct them. Your Majesty may not permit anyone else to lay hand on them.... Your Majesty’s most humble and constant servant, Titiano.”

Titian (1488–1576) Italian painter

In a letter to Emperor Charles V, from Venice, 5 Oct, 1544; copied in the 'Archives of Simancas' by Mr. Bergenroth; as quoted by J.A.Y. Crowe & G.B. Cavalcaselle in Titian his life and times - With some account... Volume II, publisher John Murray, London, 1877, p. 103
This letter is written by Titian himself - free from the polite style of his secretary/friend Arentino; he is telling the Emperor that he had finished two portraits of the Empress Isabella, he painted after her death after a probably Flemish original. The two portraits were sent to the court in Brussels.
1541-1576
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titian#/media/File:Isabella_of_Portugal_by_Titian.jpg

Parker Palmer photo
Mike Dooley photo
Alfred Rosenberg photo
Tamora Pierce photo
Alice A. Bailey photo
Sir Francis Buller, 1st Baronet photo
George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham photo

Related topics