Jean de La Bruyère

"Il faut rire avant que dêtre heureux, de peur de mourir sans avoir ri."

"Cest un métier que de faire un livre, comme de faire une pendule: il faut plus que de lesprit pour être auteur."

"Il ne manque cependant à loisiveté du sage quun meilleur nom, et que méditer, parler, lire, et être tranquille sappelât travailler."

"What can be more discouraging to a man than to doubt if his soul be material, like a stone or a reptile, and subject to corruption like the vilest creatures ? And does it not prove much more strength of mind and grandeur to be able to conceive the idea of a Being superior to all other beings, by whom and for whom all things were made; of a Being absolutely perfect and pure, without beginning or end, of whom our soul is the image, and of whom, if I may say so, it is a part, because it is spiritual and immortal?"

"Of the sixteen chapters which compose it, there are fifteen wholly employed in detecting the fallacy and ridicule to be found in the objects of human passions and inclinations, and in demolishing such obstacles as at first weaken, and afterwards extinguish, any knowledge of God in mankind ; Therefore, these chapters are merely preparatory to the sixteenth and last, wherein atheism is attacked, and perhaps routed, wherein the proofs of a God, such at least as weak man is capable of receiving, are produced ; wherein the providence of God is defended against the insults and complaints of free-thinkers."

"Lamour qui naît subitement est le plus long à guérir."