As soon as an opinion becomes common it is sufficient reason for men to abandon it and to uphold the opposite opinion until that in its turn grows old, and they require to distinguish themselves by other things. Thus if they attain their goal in some art or science, we must expect them soon to cast it aside to acquire some fresh fame, and this is partly the reason why the most splendid ages degenerate so quickly, and, scarcely emerged from barbarism, plunge into it again.
Luc de ClapiersIs it against justice or reason to love ourselves? And why is self-love always a vice?
Luc de ClapiersThe generality of men are so bound within the sphere of their circumstances that they have not even the courage to get out of them through their ideas, and if we see a few whom, in a way, speculation over great things makes incapable of mean ones, we find still more with whom the practice of small things takes away the feeling for great ones.
Luc de ClapiersSuperficial knowledge ... is hurtful to those who possess true genius; for it necessarily draws them away from their main object, wastes their industry over details and subjects foreign to their needs and natural talent, and lastly does not serve, as they flatter themselves, to prove the breadth of their mind. In all ages there have been men of very moderate intelligence who knew much, and so on the contrary, men of the highest intelligence who knew very little. Ignorance is not lack of intelligence, nor knowledge a proof of genius.
Luc de ClapiersWe are less hurt by the contempt of fools than by the lukewarm approval of men of intelligence.
Luc de ClapiersIf it is true that vice can never be done away with, the science of government consists of making it contribute to the public good.
Luc de ClapiersThe usual pretext of those who make others unhappy is that they do it for their own good.
Luc de ClapiersGlory fills the world with virtue, and, like a beneficent sun, covers the whole earth with flowers and with fruits.
Luc de ClapiersThe favorites of fortune or of fame topple from their pedestals before our eyes without diverting us from ambition.
Luc de ClapiersMost people grow old within a small circle of ideas, which they have not discovered for themselves. There are perhaps less wrong-minded people than thoughtless.
Luc de ClapiersAll that causes one man to differ from another is a very slight thing. What is it that is the origin of beauty or ugliness, health or weakness, ability or stupidity? A slight difference in the organs, a little more or a little less bile. Yet this more or less is of infinite importance to men; and when they think otherwise they are mistaken.
Luc de ClapiersReason and emotion counsel and supplement each other. Whoever heeds only the one, and puts aside the other, recklessly deprives himself of a portion of the aid granted us for the regulation of our conduct.
Luc de ClapiersOur virtues are dearer to us the more we have had to suffer for them. It is the same with our children. All profound affection admits a sacrifice.
Luc de ClapiersHope animates the wise, and lures the presumptuous and indolent who repose inconsiderately on her promises.
Luc de ClapiersIf our friends do us a service, we think they owe it to us by their title of friend. We never think that they do not owe us their friendship.
Luc de ClapiersMen crowd into honorable careers without other vocation than their vanity, or at best their love of fame.
Luc de ClapiersIf a man is endowed with a noble and courageous soul, if he is painstaking, proud, ambitious, without meanness, of a profound a deep-seated intelligence, I dare assert that he lacks nothing to be neglected by the great and men in high office, who fear, more than other men, those whom they cannot dominate.
Luc de ClapiersA man who love only himself and his pleasures is vain, presumptuous, and wicked even from principle.
Luc de Clapiers