Jean de la Bruyere Quotes

A slave has but one master; an ambitious man has as many masters as there are people who may be useful in bettering his position.

Get place and wealth, if possible with grace; if not, by any means get wealth and place.

In order to acquire a growing and lasting respect in society, it is a good thing, if you possess great talent, to give, early in your youth, a very hard kick to the right shin of the society that you love. After that, be a snob.

In affluent communities, where each member is keenly aware of his or her place within the Byzantine order, attracting the right friends is a blood sport. Chumming up to influential figures who are in a position to help can determine the course of an entire life.

A slave has but one master. An ambition man, has as many as there are people who helped him get his fortune.

Dependence begets subservience and venality, suffocates the germ of virtue, and prepares fit tools for the designs of ambition.

The path of social advancement is, and must be, strewn with broken friendships.

Once the Secretary of State invites you to lunch and asks your opinion, you’re sunk.

It is bad to have a servant, but worse to have a master.

If we review the List of those Heroes who compose Congresses, Committees, mock Government, & the chief army Departments, we shall find it filled up with Men, desperate in Ambition or in Fortune.

Never doubt what small men will do for great power.

I'm not that interested in just being around powerful people for the sake of it.

Everybody is owned by somebody.

When the master has come to do everything through the slave, the slave becomes his master, since he cannot live without him.

A flatterer can risk everything with great personages.

Who owns a man, Durnik?” the blond young man asked sadly. “The one who rules him, or the one who pays him?

Action men are the unvoluntary slaves of wise men.

Though authority be a stubborn bear, yet he is oft let by the nose with gold.

The man who speaks to you of sacrifice, speaks of slaves and masters. And intends to be the master.

All you have to do is go back to slavery - days, and there were two types of slaves, the house slave and the field slave. The house slave was the one who believed in the master, who had confidence in the master and usually was very friendly with the master. And usually he was also used by the master to try and keep the other slaves pacified.

The master is a slave when he fears those whom he rules.

It was lovely, and tempting, to exert power over men and to shine before others, but power also had its perditions and perils.

Clout is something some seem to have-until they try exercising it.

Colin Powell's committed to come into the house of the master. When Colin Powell dares to suggest something other than what the master wants to hear, he will be turned back out to pasture.

To keep a man a slave you do much the same as the cruel circus masters did to the elephant around the turn of last century. Clamp heavy chains around their legs and stake them to the ground. Then beat and terrorize them. After a while you no longer even have to stake the chain; the elephant gives up and just the mere rattle of the chain convinces the elephant there is no hope, so they give up and do whatever it is the circus requires.