“We come too late to say anything which has not been said already.”

—  Jean de La Bruyère , book Les Caractères

Tout est dit, et l'on vient trop tard depuis plus de sept mille ans qu'il y a des hommes qui pensent.
Aphorism 1; Variant translation: Everything has been said, and we have come too late, now that men have been living and thinking for seven thousand years and more.
Les Caractères (1688), Des Ouvrages de l'Esprit

Original

Tout est dit, et l'on vient trop tard depuis plus de sept mille ans qu'il y a des hommes qui pensent.

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

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Jean de La Bruyère photo
Jean de La Bruyère 65
17th-century French writer and philosopher 1645–1696

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