LUC DE CLAPIERS

The fruit derived from labor is the sweetest of pleasures.

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

The maxims of men reveal their characters.

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

One promises much, to avoid giving little.

Patience is the art of hoping.

The law cannot equalize mankind in spite of nature.

Everyone is born sincere and die deceivers.

All grand thoughts come from the heart.

Obscurity is the realm of error.

You are not born for fame if you don't know the value of time.

Vice stirs up war, virtue fights.

To execute great things, one should live as though one would never die.

There is nothing that fear and hope does not permit men to do.

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

Indolence is the sleep of the mind.

Lazy people are always anxious to be doing something.

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

Men sometimes feel injured by praise because it assigns a limit to their merit; few people are modest enough not to take offense that one appreciates them.

Emotions have taught mankind to reason.

You must rouse into people's consciousness their own prudence and strength, if you want to raise their character.

Clarity is the counterbalance of profound thoughts.

To possess taste, one must have some soul.

The wicked are always surprised to find ability in the good.

Clearness ornaments profound thoughts.