Quotes by
Joseph Joubert |
1754-1824 , French author of maxims
He was a French moralist and essayist, remembered today largely for his Pensées (Thoughts), which were published posthumously. | 92 quotes | 3,715 visits |
Quotations
| • | You cannot become highly educated if you only read what you like. 6 |
| • | It is not abundance, but excellence that is wealth. 4 |
| • | Plato found philosophy made of brick, and made it of gold. 4 |
| • | The tulip is a flower without a soul; but it seems that the rose and the lily have one. 4 |
| • | You will find poetry nowhere unless you bring some of it with you. 4 |
| • | When we act, we must comply with the rules, and when we judge, be aware of the exceptions. 3 |
| • | Genius begins great works. Labor alone finishes them. 3 |
| • | Close your eyes and see. 3 |
| • | The worst thing about new books is that they keep us from reading the old ones. 2 |
| • | Imagination is the eye of the soul. 2 |
| • | Tenderness is the repose of passion. 2 |
| • | Genius is the ability to see things invisible, to manipulate things intangible, to paint things that have no shape. 1 |
| • | The aim of an argument or discussion should not be victory, but progress. 1 |
| • | Fear is in the imagination, cowardice in character. 1 |
| • | Are you listening to the ones who keep quiet? |
| • | It is an aspect of all happiness to suppose that we deserve it. |
| • | Mediocrity is excellence in the eyes of the mediocre. |
| • | Eyes raised toward heaven are always beautiful, whatever they see. |
| • | Misery is almost always the result of thinking. |
| • | You want to talk to someone; first open your ears. |
| • | Superstition is the only religion of which base souls are capable of. |
| • | We use up in the passions all the stuff that was given to us for happiness. |
| • | Old age was naturally more honored in times when people could not know much more than what they had seen. |
| • | The sound of the drum drives out thought; for that very reason it is the most military of instruments. |
| • | Pleasures are always children, pains always have wrinkles. |
| • | Everything that is exact is short. |
| • | Music has seven letters, writing has twenty-six notes |
| • | To be capable of respect is almost as rare as to be worthy of it. |
| • | Virtue is the health of the soul. |
| • | Chance generally favors the prudent. |
| • | National literature begins with fables and ends with novels. |
| • | Old age takes from the man of intellect no qualities save those that are useless to wisdom. |
| • | Before you use a nice word, make room for it. |
| • | Nothing which does not transport is poetry. The lyre is a winged instrument. |
| • | There is always some frivolity in excellent minds; they have wings to rise, but also to stray. |
| • | All luxury corrupts either the morals or the taste. |
| • | Without duty, life is soft and boneless. |
| • | Illusion and wisdom combined are the charm of life and art. |
| • | A work is perfectly finished only when nothing can be added to it and nothing taken away. |
| • | You arrive at truth through poetry; I arrive at poetry through truth. |
| • | Abuse of words is the foundation of ideology. |
| • | Logic is to grammar what the meaning of the words is to their sound. |
| • | We no longer think of the face of the woman whose naked body we see. |
| • | How is it that it is only by looking for the words that we find the thoughts! |
| • | Friendship is a plant that must resist droughts. |
| • | The goal is not always set to be achieved, but to serve as a focal point. |
| • | When my friends are one-eyed, I look at them in profile. |
| • | Weakness that preserves is better than strength that destroys. |
| • | Indifference gives a false air of superiority |
| • | Prayer doesn’t change our destiny, but it changes our mood, which is not less useful. |
| • | Some critics are quite like those people who show ugly teeth every time they want to laugh. |
| • | May what is promised to you in a dream come in a dream! |
| • | The evening of life brings its lamp with it. |
| • | It is only up to the head to think, but the whole body has memory. |
| • | Whoever wants to be happy is not. |
| • | All passions love what feeds them. Fear loves the idea of danger. |
| • | Thoughts are formed in the soul as clouds are formed in the air. |
| • | Words are never lacking in ideas; ideas are lacking in words. |
| • | God is the place where I don’t remember the rest. |
| • | For some, style arises from thoughts; in others, thoughts arise from style. |
| • | There is in Plato a light always ready to show itself, and which never shows itself. |
| • | There are opinions that come from the heart, and anyone who has no fixed opinion does not have constant feelings. |
| • | Gods, not wanting to deprive the Greeks of the truth, they gave them poetry. |
| • | Below the head, shoulders and chest begins the animal, or that part of the body where the soul should not please. |
| • | If you want to give men a virtue, first give them a passion. |
| • | It’s always our helplessness that irritates us. |
| • | Seek wisdom rather than the truth. It is more within our reach. |
| • | What is the use of modesty? It is used to appear more beautiful when we are beautiful and to appear less ugly when we are. |
| • | The breath of the mind is attention. |
| • | Politeness is to kindness what words are to thought. |
| • | It is better to debate a question without settling it than to settle a question without debating it. |
| • | Never cut what you can untie. |
| • | He who has imagination without learning has wings but no feet. |
| • | Children need role models rather than criticism. |
| • | To teach is to learn twice. |
| • | Words are like eyeglasses they blur everything that they do not make clear. |
| • | One should choose for a wife only such a woman as he would choose for a friend, were she a man. |
| • | If you are poor, distinguish yourself by your virtues; if rich, by your good deeds. |
| • | When you give, give with joy and smiling. |
| • | Justice is the right of the weakest. |
| • | In politics, we must always have a bone to throw to the rebels. |
| • | Everything can be learned, even virtue. |
| • | When I look at history, I see hours of freedom and centuries of servitude. |
| • | The soul of the diamond is the light. |
| • | The exception always comes from the reason for the rule. |
| • | Those who never retract their opinions love themselves more than they love truth. |
| • | Never write anything that does not give you great pleasure. Emotion is easily transferred from the writer to the reader. |
| • | There are certain people to whom one must advise craziness. |
| • | We may convince others by our arguments, but we can only persuade them by their own. |
| • | Questions show the mind’s range, and answers its subtlety. |
| • | Children always want to look behind mirrors. |
| • | A part of kindness consists in loving people more than they deserve. |
