Luc de Clapiers de Vauvenargues cytaty

„Aforyzmy są dowcipami filozofii.”

„Słaba jest nasza życzliwość dla tych, których wspomagamy tylko radą.”

„Jeżeli wybacza się ułomności miłosne, to głównie u kobiet, których władzą jest miłość.”

„Mądrość jest nieskończona; im bardziej się w nią zagłębisz, tym bardziej jej potrzebujesz.”

„Handel jest szkołą oszukaństwa.”

„Tyranem, kto surowszy jest od prawa.”

„Jasność jest ozdobą myśli głębokich.”

„Nikt nie jest bardziej skłonny do błędów, jak ci, co działają tylko po zastanowieniu.”

„Nie ma człowieka tak dowcipnego, iżby nie bywał nudny.”

„Zabawne, że ze wstydliwości uczyniono prawo kobiet, w których mężczyźni niczego tak nie cenią, jak bezwstydu.”

„Niewola tak poniża ludzi, że aż się w niej rozmiłowują.”

„Dla aktywnego człowieka świat jest tym, czym powinien być, to znaczy pełen przeciwności.”

„Lenie zawsze mają ochotę coś zrobić.”

„Zazdrość ukrywać się nie umie.”

„I najlepsi pisarze są gadatliwi.”

„Kto żyje ze zwalczania wroga, zainteresowany jest tym, by wróg jak najdłużej istniał.”

„Mądrość planów polega na przewidzeniu także trudności wykonawczych.”

„Człowiek kierujący się tylko rozsądkiem myli się najczęściej.”

„Ci, którzy boją się ludzi, uwielbiają ustawy.”

„Chcąc wielkie dokonać rzeczy, trzeba tak żyć, jakbyśmy nigdy nie mieli umierać.”

„Świadomość tego, że życie jest krótkie, nie może odwieść nas od korzystania z jego uroków, ani pocieszyć nas w kłopotach, jakich nam ono przysparza.”

„Samotność jest dla umysłu tym, czym dieta dla ciała.”

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

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

“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.”

“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.”

“Our failings sometimes bind us to one another as closely as could virtue itself.”

“Great thoughts come from the heart.”

“The falsest of all philosophies is that which, under the pretext of delivering men from the embarrassment of their passions, counsels idleness and the abandonment and neglect of themselves.”

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

“If children had teachers for judgment and eloquence as they have for languages, if their memory was exercised less than their energy or their natural genius, if instead of deadening their vivacity of mind we tried to elevate the free scope and impulses of their souls, what might not result from a fine disposition? As it is, we forget that courage, or love of truth and glory are the virtues that matter most in youth; and our one endeavor is to subdue our children’s spirits, in order to teach them that dependence and suppleness are the first laws of success in life.”

“The moderation of great men only sets a limit to their vices. The moderation of weak men is mediocrity.”

“If a man is endowed with a noble and courageous soul, if he is painstaking, proud, ambitious, without meanness, of a profound a deep-seated intelligence, I dare assert that he lacks nothing to be neglected by the great and men in high office, who fear, more than other men, those whom they cannot dominate.”

“No one says in the morning: A day is soon past, let us wait for the night. On the contrary, in the evening we consider what we shall do the next day. We should be very sorry to spend even one day at the mercy of time and bores. … Who can be certain of spending an hour without being bored, if he takes no care to fill even that short period according to his pleasure. Yet what we cannot be certain of for an hour, we sometimes feel assured of for life, and say: “If death is the end of everything, why give ourselves so much trouble? We are extremely foolish to make such a pother about the future”—that is to say, we are extremely foolish not to entrust our destinies to chance, and to provide for the interval which lies between us and death.”

“Mercy is of greater value than justice.”

“If our friends do us a service, we think they owe it to us by their title of friend. We never think that they do not owe us their friendship.”

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

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

“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.”

“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.”

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

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

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

“Emotion has taught mankind to reason.”

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

“Those who fear men like laws.”

“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.”

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

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

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

“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.”