Jean de la Bruyere Quotes

Outward simplicity befits ordinary men, like a garment made to measure for them; but it serves as an adornment to those who have filled their lives with great deeds: they might be compared to some beauty carelessly dressed and thereby all the more attractive.

Genius and virtue are to be more often found clothed in gray than in peacock bright.

I have never been one for the over-the-top.

Virtue is like a rich stone, best plain set.

The firm, the enduring, the simple, and the modest are near to virtue.

We come nearest to the great when we are great in humility.

Nothing can atone for the lack of modesty; without which beauty is ungraceful and wit detestable.

I'm not very glamorous.

I've never been a much of a glamour girl.

It is the duty of a great person so to demean himself, as that whatever endowments he may have, he may appear to value himself upon no qualities but such as any man may arrive at.

[Humility is:] Greatness in plain clothes

The beauty of modesty ... a virtue the world doesn't have much truck with: one ordinary flower in a vase, as opposed to a bouquet.

Men of quality never appear more amiable than when their dress is plain. Their birth, rank, title and its appendages are at best indivious and as they do not need the assistance of dress, so, by their disclaiming the advantage of it, they make their superiority sit more easy.

The noblest deeds are well enough set forth in simple language; emphasis spoils them.

Talent, like beauty, to be pardoned, must be obscure and unostentatious.

Fairest and best adorned is she Whose clothing is humility.

A homely face and no figure have aided many women heavenward.

I like to keep things classic, not lavish or blinged out. I don't even say that word. The last thing I want to be is over the top.

In character, in manner, in style, in all things, the supreme excellence is simplicity.

The American women are very pretty and have great simplicity of character, and the extreme neatness of their appearance is truly delightful: cleanliness is everywhere even more studiously attended to here than in England.

A superior man is modest in his speech, but exceeds in his actions.

The plainer the dress, the greater luster does beauty appear.

The key thing about me is that I'm really not very interesting.

It is always better to be slightly underdressed.

I believe the first test of a truly great man is in his humility.