The “Characters” of Jean de La Bruyère

heard it out, and then spoke about some of his own writings. “But what said he of yours?” youʼll ask me. “I have told you already; he spoke to me only of his own.”

knows a good many useless things; he is singular in his sentiments, and less profound than methodical; he only exercises his memory, is absent-minded, scornful, and seems continually laughing to himself at those whom he thinks his inferiors

are exempt from an authorʼs jealousy, have either other passions or necessities to distract them, and to make them indifferent towards other menʼs conceptions.

Almost no one, whether through disposition, inclination, or fortune, is willing to relish the delight that a perfect piece of work can give.

A shallow mind thinks his writings divine; a man of sense imagines he writes tolerably well.

A good author, who writes carefully, often finds that the expression he has been looking for for some time, and which he did not know, proves, when found at last, to be the most simple, the most natural, and the one which was most likely to present itself to him spontaneously at first.

do not satisfy a man of culture who wishes to make himself understood.

He who will not listen to any advice, nor be corrected in his writings, is a rank pedant.

quotes them, and they are so fine, that his criticism is read only for their sake.

Some able men declare in favour of the ancients against the moderns; but we doubt them, as they seem to be judges in their own cause, for their works are so exactly written after the model of antiquity, that we cannot accept their authority.