French Wit

Wisdom is to the soul what health is to the body.
— De Saint-Réal, in French Wit, Wisdom & Wickedness, J. De Finod (ed.), p. 9.

To remain virtuous, a man has only to combat his own desires: a woman must resist her own inclinations, and the continual attack of man.
— Laténa, in Ibid., p. 15.

Prejudice is the reason of fools.
— Voltaire, in Ibid, p. 19.

In external cares we spend our years, ever agitated by new desires: we look forward to living, and yet never live.
— Fontenelle, in Ibid., p. 19.

Under the freest constitution ignorant people are still slaves.
— Condorcet, in Ibid., p. 22.
 
Shun idleness: it is the rust that attaches itself to the most brilliant metals.
— Voltaire, in Ibid., p. 24.
 
Alas! what does man here below? A little noise in much shadow.
— Victor Hugo, in Ibid., p. 30.

Solitude causes us to write because it causes us to think.
— Mlle. de Guérin, in Ibid., p. 31.

Use, do not abuse: neither abstinence nor excess ever renders man happy.
— Voltaire, in Ibid., p. 34.

The moment past is no longer: the future may never be: the present is all of which man is the master.
— J.J. Rousseau, in Ibid., p. 35.

Everything falls and is effaced. A few feet under the ground reigns so profound a silence, and yet, so much tumult on the surface!
— Victor Hugo, in Ibid., p. 44.

Prosperity unmasks the vices; adversity reveals the virtues.
— Denis Diderot, in Ibid., p. 55.

Patience is the courage of virtue.
— Bernardin de St. Pierre, in Ibid., p. 56.

Promises retain men better than services. For them, hope is a chain, and gratitude a thread.
— J. Petit-Senn, in Ibid., p. 58.

How can we expect another to keep our secret, when it is more than we can do ourselves?
— La Rochefoucauld, in Ibid., p. 83.

Truth is the sun of the intelligence.
— Vauvenarques, in Ibid., p. 88.

In order to do great things, we should live as though we were never to die.
— Vauvenarques, in Ibid., p. 115.

Everybody gives advice: some listen to it, none apply it.
— Alfred Bougeart, in Ibid., p. 127.

The heart has reasons that the reason does not understand.
— Bossuet, in Ibid., p. 135.

Those who always speak well of women do not know them enough; those who always speak ill of them do no know them at all.
— Pigault-Lebrun, in Ibid., p. 143.

Why should we complain, since we are so little moved by the complaints of others?
— Alfred Bougeart, in Ibid., p. 148.

Many wish to be pious, but none to be humble.
— La Rochefaucauld, in Ibid., p. 163.

He who reckons ten friends has not one.
— Malesherbes, in Ibid., p. 174.

There are men who pride themselves on their insensibility to love: it is like boasting of having been always stupid.
— S. de Castres, in Ibid., p. 177.

To please, one must make up his mind to be taught many things which he already knows, by people who do not know them.
— Chamfort, in Ibid., p. 178.

The conversation of women in society resembles the straw used in packing china: it is nothing, yet, without it, everything would be broken.
— Mme. de Solm, in Ibid., p. 182.

It takes twenty years to bring man from the state of embryo, and from that of a mere animal, as he is in his first infancy, to the point when his reason begins to dawn. It has taken thirty centuries to know his structure; it would take eternity to know something of his soul: it takes but an instant to kill him.
— Voltaire, in Ibid., p. 211.

It costs more to satisfy a vice than to feed a family.
— Balzac, in Ibid., p.213.

Life is long enough for him who knows how to use it. Working and thinking extend its limits.
— Voltaire, in Ibid., p. 219.

What prevents us from being natural is the desire to appear so.
— La Rochefaucauld, in Ibid., p. 236.