Jean de la Bruyere Quotes

No man is a hero to his valet de chamber

The nearer we come to great men the more clearly we see that they are only men. They rarely seem great to their valets.

No man is a hero to his valet. This is not because the hero is no hero, but because the valet is a valet.

To a valet no man is a hero.

Some prideful people are not so concerned as to whether their wages meet their needs as they are that their wages are more than someone else's. Their reward is being a cut above the rest. This is the enmity of pride.

It has to do with the fact that Ford, for all his greatness, is an Irish egomaniac, as anyone who knows him will say.

The desire to seem clever often keeps us from being so.

Become a legend? But I am already.

Worship of a hero is transcendent admiration of a great man.

Hero-worship is the deepest root of all; the tap-root, from which in a great degree all the rest were nourished and grown . . . Worship of a Hero is transcendent admiration of a Great Man. I say great men are still admirable; I say there is, at bottom, nothing else admirable! No nobler feeling than this of admiration for one higher than himself dwells in the breast of men.

It is said that no man is a hero to his valet. That is because a hero can be recognized only by a hero.

The Great slight the men of wit, who have nothing but wit; the men of wit despise the Great, who have nothing but greatness; the good man pities them both, if with greatness or wit they have not virtue.

He thought others were small; that was his greatness.

The same amount of pride which makes a man treat haughtily his inferiors, makes him cringe servilely; to those above him.

He sounded to me like he's supposed to be the savior of jazz. Sometimes people speak as though someone asked them a question. Well, no one asked him a question.

Some men who know that they are great are so very haughty withal and insufferable that their acquaintance discover their greatness only by the tax of humility which they are obliged to pay as the price of their friendship.

The opposite of humility is arrogance--the belief that we are wiser or better than others. Arrogance promotes separation rather than community. It looms like a brick wall between us and those from whom we could learn.

Everyone is an idiot," I stated. "Except me.

Lifted up so high I disdained subjection, and thought one step higher would set me highest.

Unless we consent to lack the common things which men call success, we shall hardly become heroes or saints, philosophers or poets.

Is it arrogance if one is truly superior?

All our heroes, all our great stories are about failure.

Before thou callest a man hero or genius, investigate whether his exertion has features of indelibility; for all that is celestial, all genius, is the offspring of immortality.