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 | 3,770 visits |
Quotations
| • | You cannot become highly educated if you only read what you like. 7 |
| • | It is not abundance, but excellence that is wealth. 5 |
| • | Plato found philosophy made of brick, and made it of gold. 5 |
| • | The tulip is a flower without a soul; but it seems that the rose and the lily have one. 5 |
| • | You will find poetry nowhere unless you bring some of it with you. 5 |
| • | When we act, we must comply with the rules, and when we judge, be aware of the exceptions. 4 |
| • | Genius begins great works. Labor alone finishes them. 4 |
| • | Close your eyes and see. 4 |
| • | The worst thing about new books is that they keep us from reading the old ones. 3 |
| • | Imagination is the eye of the soul. 3 |
| • | Tenderness is the repose of passion. 3 |
| • | Superstition is the only religion of which base souls are capable of. 2 |
| • | Music has seven letters, writing has twenty-six notes 2 |
| • | Genius is the ability to see things invisible, to manipulate things intangible, to paint things that have no shape. 2 |
| • | The aim of an argument or discussion should not be victory, but progress. 2 |
| • | Fear is in the imagination, cowardice in character. 2 |
| • | Are you listening to the ones who keep quiet? 1 |
| • | It is an aspect of all happiness to suppose that we deserve it. 1 |
| • | Mediocrity is excellence in the eyes of the mediocre. 1 |
| • | Eyes raised toward heaven are always beautiful, whatever they see. 1 |
| • | Misery is almost always the result of thinking. 1 |
| • | You want to talk to someone; first open your ears. 1 |
| • | We use up in the passions all the stuff that was given to us for happiness. 1 |
| • | Old age was naturally more honored in times when people could not know much more than what they had seen. 1 |
| • | The sound of the drum drives out thought; for that very reason it is the most military of instruments. 1 |
| • | Pleasures are always children, pains always have wrinkles. 1 |
| • | Everything that is exact is short. 1 |
| • | To be capable of respect is almost as rare as to be worthy of it. 1 |
| • | Virtue is the health of the soul. 1 |
| • | Chance generally favors the prudent. 1 |
| • | National literature begins with fables and ends with novels. 1 |
| • | Old age takes from the man of intellect no qualities save those that are useless to wisdom. 1 |
| • | Before you use a nice word, make room for it. 1 |
| • | Nothing which does not transport is poetry. The lyre is a winged instrument. 1 |
| • | There is always some frivolity in excellent minds; they have wings to rise, but also to stray. 1 |
| • | All luxury corrupts either the morals or the taste. 1 |
| • | Without duty, life is soft and boneless. 1 |
| • | Illusion and wisdom combined are the charm of life and art. 1 |
| • | A work is perfectly finished only when nothing can be added to it and nothing taken away. 1 |
| • | You arrive at truth through poetry; I arrive at poetry through truth. 1 |
| • | Abuse of words is the foundation of ideology. 1 |
| • | Logic is to grammar what the meaning of the words is to their sound. 1 |
| • | We no longer think of the face of the woman whose naked body we see. 1 |
| • | How is it that it is only by looking for the words that we find the thoughts! 1 |
| • | Friendship is a plant that must resist droughts. 1 |
| • | The goal is not always set to be achieved, but to serve as a focal point. 1 |
| • | When my friends are one-eyed, I look at them in profile. 1 |
| • | Weakness that preserves is better than strength that destroys. 1 |
| • | Indifference gives a false air of superiority 1 |
| • | Prayer doesn’t change our destiny, but it changes our mood, which is not less useful. 1 |
| • | Some critics are quite like those people who show ugly teeth every time they want to laugh. 1 |
| • | May what is promised to you in a dream come in a dream! 1 |
| • | The evening of life brings its lamp with it. 1 |
| • | It is only up to the head to think, but the whole body has memory. 1 |
| • | Whoever wants to be happy is not. 1 |
| • | All passions love what feeds them. Fear loves the idea of danger. 1 |
| • | Thoughts are formed in the soul as clouds are formed in the air. 1 |
| • | Words are never lacking in ideas; ideas are lacking in words. 1 |
| • | God is the place where I don’t remember the rest. 1 |
| • | For some, style arises from thoughts; in others, thoughts arise from style. 1 |
| • | There is in Plato a light always ready to show itself, and which never shows itself. 1 |
| • | There are opinions that come from the heart, and anyone who has no fixed opinion does not have constant feelings. 1 |
| • | Gods, not wanting to deprive the Greeks of the truth, they gave them poetry. 1 |
| • | Below the head, shoulders and chest begins the animal, or that part of the body where the soul should not please. 1 |
| • | If you want to give men a virtue, first give them a passion. 1 |
| • | It’s always our helplessness that irritates us. 1 |
| • | Seek wisdom rather than the truth. It is more within our reach. 1 |
| • | 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. 1 |
| • | The breath of the mind is attention. 1 |
| • | Politeness is to kindness what words are to thought. 1 |
| • | It is better to debate a question without settling it than to settle a question without debating it. 1 |
| • | Never cut what you can untie. 1 |
| • | He who has imagination without learning has wings but no feet. 1 |
| • | Children need role models rather than criticism. 1 |
| • | To teach is to learn twice. 1 |
| • | Words are like eyeglasses they blur everything that they do not make clear. 1 |
| • | One should choose for a wife only such a woman as he would choose for a friend, were she a man. 1 |
| • | If you are poor, distinguish yourself by your virtues; if rich, by your good deeds. 1 |
| • | When you give, give with joy and smiling. 1 |
| • | Justice is the right of the weakest. 1 |
| • | In politics, we must always have a bone to throw to the rebels. 1 |
| • | Everything can be learned, even virtue. 1 |
| • | When I look at history, I see hours of freedom and centuries of servitude. 1 |
| • | The soul of the diamond is the light. 1 |
| • | The exception always comes from the reason for the rule. 1 |
| • | Those who never retract their opinions love themselves more than they love truth. 1 |
| • | Never write anything that does not give you great pleasure. Emotion is easily transferred from the writer to the reader. 1 |
| • | There are certain people to whom one must advise craziness. 1 |
| • | We may convince others by our arguments, but we can only persuade them by their own. 1 |
| • | Questions show the mind’s range, and answers its subtlety. 1 |
| • | Children always want to look behind mirrors. 1 |
| • | A part of kindness consists in loving people more than they deserve. 1 |
