Vauvenargues Quotes

The mind reaches great heights only by spurts.

Vice stirs up war virtue fights.

We don't have enough time to premeditate all our actions.

Prosperity makes some friends and many enemies.

No one is more liable to make mistakes than the man who acts only on reflection.

Generosity gives assistance rather than advice.

If virtue were its own reward it would no longer be a human quality but supernatural.

The greatest achievement of the human spirit is to live up to one's opportunities and make the most of one's resources.

To achieve great things we must live as though we were never going to die.

When we are sick our virtues and our vices are in abeyance.

All men are born truthful and die liars.

Great thoughts come from the heart.

Patience is the art of hoping.

Necessity relieves us from the embarrassment of choice.

There is nothing that fear or hope does not make men believe.

We should expect the best and the worst from mankind as from the weather.

There are men who are happy without knowing it.

If anyone accuses me of contradicting myself I reply: Because I have been wrong once or oftener I do not aspire to be always wrong.

When an idea is too weak to support a simple statement it is a sign that it should be rejected.

He who knows how to suffer everything can dare everything.

The lazy are always wanting to do something.

Prosperity makes few friends.

Simple truths are a relief from grand speculations.

Man never rises to great truths without enthusiasm.

The greatest achievement of the human spirit is to live up to one's opportunities and make the most of one's resources.

Servitude debases men to the point where they end up liking it.

The greatest evil which fortune can inflict on men is to endow them with small talents and great ambitions.

There are those who are so scrupulously afraid of doing wrong that they seldom venture to do anything.

Great men undertake great things because they are great fools because they think them easy.

Action makes more fortunes than caution.

Nothing but courage can guide life.

Great thoughts always come from the heart.

The most absurd and reckless aspirations have sometimes led to extraordinary success.