Luc de Clapiers de Vauvenargues cytaty

strona 2

„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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“Clarity is the good faith of philosophers”

“It is unjust to exact that men shall do out of deference to our advice what they have no desire to do for themselves.”

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

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

“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.”

“Hope deceives more men than cunning does.”

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

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

“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.”

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

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

“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.”

“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.”

“Great men are sometimes so even in small things.”

“Is it against justice or reason to love ourselves? And why is self-love always a vice?”

“You can purchase the mind of Pascal for a crown. Pleasures even cheaper are sold to those who give themselves up to them. It is only luxuries and objects of caprice that are rare and difficult to obtain; unfortunately they are the only things that touch the curiosity and taste of ordinary men.”

“Necessity relieves us from the embarrassment of choice.”

“Some are born to invent, others to embellish; but the gilder attracts more attention than the architect.”

“Most people grow old within a small circle of ideas, which they have not discovered for themselves. There are perhaps less wrong-minded people than thoughtless.”

“Great men in teaching weak men to reflect have set them on the road to error.”

“Men crowd into honorable careers without other vocation than their vanity, or at best their love of fame.”

“Men are not to be judged by what they do not know, but by what they know, and by the manner in which they know it.”

“Lazy people are always looking for something to do.”

“Magnanimity owes no account to prudence of its motives.”

“It is proof of a narrow mind when things worthy of esteem are distinguished from things worthy of love. Great minds naturally love whatever is worthy of their esteem.”

“It is in our own mind and not in exterior objects that we perceive most things; fools know scarcely anything because they are empty, and their heart is narrow; but great souls find in themselves a number of exterior things; they have no need to read or travel or to listen or to work to discover the highest truths; they have only to delve into themselves and search, if we may say so, their own thoughts.”

“The favorites of fortune or of fame topple from their pedestals before our eyes without diverting us from ambition.”