The noblest deeds are well enough set forth in simple language; emphasis spoils them.
Jean de la BruyereWe should keep silent about those in power; to speak well of them almost implies flattery; to speak ill of them while they are alive is dangerous, and when they are dead is cowardly.
Jean de la BruyereWhen we are dead we are praised by those who survive us, though we frequently have no other merit than that of being no longer alive.
Jean de la BruyereThere are certain things in which mediocrity is intolerable: poetry, music, painting, public eloquence. What torture it is to hear a frigid speech being pompously declaimed, or second-rate verse spoken with all a bad poet's bombast!
Jean de la Bruyere