Joseph Joubert Quotes

There is graciousness and a kind of urbanity in beginning with men by esteem and confidence. It proves, at least, that we have long lived in good company with others and with our selves.

The paper is patient, but the reader is not.

A few words worthy to be remembered suffice to give an idea of a great mind. There are single thoughts that contain the essence of a whole volume, single sentences that have the beauties of a large work, a simplicity so finished and so perfect that it equals in merit and in excellence a large and glorious composition.

Tormented by the cursed ambition always to put a whole book in a page, a whole page in a sentence, and this sentence in a word. I am speaking of myself.

We shall always keep a spare corner in our heads to give passing hospitality to our friends' opinion.

Every modulated sound is not a song, and every voice that executes a beautiful air does not sing. Singing should enchant. But to produce this effect there must be a quality of soul and voice which is by no means common even with great singers.

There are people who are virtuous only in a piece-meal way; virtue is a fabric from which they never make themselves a whole garment.

Science confounds everything; it gives to the flowers an animal appetite, and takes away from even the plants their chastity.

Professional critics are incapable of distinguishing and appreciating either diamonds in the rough or gold in bars. They are traders, and in literature know only the coins that are current. Their critical lab has scales and weights, but neither crucible or touchstone.

In order to be happy, think of the ills you have been spared.

Politeness smooths wrinkles.

Genius begins beautiful works, but only labor finishes them.

Nothing which does not transport is poetry. The lyre is a winged instrument.

Moderation consists in being moved as angels are moved.

Which is more misshapen,--religion without virtue, or virtue without religion?

Genuinely good remarks surprise their author as well as his audience.

Superstition is the only religion of which base souls are capable of.

Old age was naturally more honored in times when people could not know much more than what they had seen.

Attention is like a narrow mouthed vessel; pour into it what you have to say cautiously, and, as it were, drop by drop.

Credulity forges more miracles than trickery could invent.

Never write anything that does not give you great pleasure. Emotion is easily transferred from the writer to the reader.

Words are like eyeglasses they blur everything that they do not make clear.

Our worries always come from our weaknesses.

It may be said that it is with our thoughts as with our flowers. Those whose expression is simple carry their seed with them; those that are double by their richness and pomp charm the mind, but produce nothing.

Truth takes the stamp of the souls it enters. It is rigorous and rough in arid souls, but tempers and softens itself in loving natures.

A part of kindness consists in loving people more than they deserve.

God is the place where I do not remember the rest.

Some superior minds are unrecognized because there is no standard by which to weigh them.

Be saving, but not at the cost of all liberality. Have the soul of a king and the hand of a wise economist.

Fear loves the idea of danger.

Ornaments were invented by modesty.

All are born to observe order, but few are born to establish it.

He who has not the weakness of friendship has not the strength.

The sound of the drum drives out thought; for that very reason it is the most military of instruments.

In clothes clean and fresh there is a kind of youth with which age should surround itself.

Only choose in marriage a man whom you would choose as a friend if he were a woman.

Virtue by calculation is the virtue of vice.

Contempt for private wrongs was one of the features of ancient morals.

When we love, it is the heart that judges.

Genius is the ability to see things invisible, to manipulate things intangible, to paint things that have no features

If authorities were well organized, there would not be an Unknown Warrior.

Imagination is the eye of the soul.

There is an admiration which is the daughter of knowledge.

Beautiful works do not intoxicate, but they enchant.

Genius begins great works; labor alone finishes them.

We should do good whenever we can and do kindness at all times, for at all times we can.

The mind conceives with pain, but it brings forth with delight.

Only just the right quantum of wit should be put into a book; in conversation a little excess is allowable.