Joseph Joubert
Questions show the mind's range, and answers its subtlety.Collection: Political
The breath of the mind is attention.Collection: Mind
Of what delights are we deprived by our excesses!Collection: Excess
The essential thing is not that there be many truths in a work, but that no truth be abused.Collection: Essentials
It is an aspect of all happiness to suppose that we deserve it.Collection: Happiness
There are single thoughts that contain the essence of a whole volume, single sentences that have the beauties of a large work.Collection: Essence
We measure minds by their stature; it would be better to esteem them by their beauty.Collection: Mind
Proverbs may be said to be the abridgment of wisdom.Collection: Inspirational
Minds which never rest are subject to many digressions.Collection: Mind
Without duty, life is sort of boneless; it cannot hold itself together.Collection: Together
Taste has never been corrupted by simplicity.Collection: Simplicity
Fear loves the idea of danger.Collection: Fear
The ways suited to confidence are familiar to me, but not those that are suited to familiarity.Collection: Way
In these times gain is not only a matter of greed, but of ambition.Collection: Ambition
It would be next to impossible to discover a handsome woman who was not also a vain woman.Collection: Vanity
Slander is the solace of malignity.Collection: Slander
When a nation gives birth to a man who is able to produce a great thought, another is born who is able to understand and admire it.Collection: Appreciation
I quit Paris unwillingly, because I must part from my friends; and I quit the country unwillingly, because I must part from myself.Collection: Country
National literature begins with fables and ends with novels.Collection: Literature
If fortune wishes to make a man estimable, she gives him virtues; if she wishes to make him esteemed, she gives him success.Collection: Success
Credulity forges more miracles than trickery could invent.Collection: Miracle
It is not my words that I polish, but my ideas.Collection: Ideas
Every legitimate authority should respect its extent and its limits.Collection: Limits
One day, a daughter of Aristotle, Pythias by name, was asked what color pleased her most. She replied, "The color with which modesty suffuses the face of simple, inoffensive men.Collection: Daughter
Men have torn up the roads which led to Heaven, and which all the world followed; now we have to make our own ladders.Collection: Men
A work is perfectly finished only when nothing can be added to it and nothing taken away.Collection: Wisdom
The lively phraseology of Montesquieu was the result of long meditation. His words, as light as wings, bear on them grave reflections.Collection: Reflection
The evening of a well spent youth brings it's lamps with it.Collection: Wisdom
Without duty, life is soft and boneless.Collection: Inspirational
Old age takes from the man of intellect no qualities save those that are useless to wisdom.Collection: Men
You arrive at truth through poetry; I arrive at poetry through truth.Collection: Truth
Genuine witticisms surprise those who say them as much as those who listen to them; they arise in us in spite of us, or, at least, without our participation,--like everything inspired.Collection: Inspired
Sexes. One has the look of a wound, the other of something skinned.Collection: Sex
Nothing which does not transport is poetry. The lyre is a winged instrument.Collection: Doe
There is always some frivolity in excellent minds; they have wings to rise, but also stray.Collection: Humor
Virtue by calculation is the virtue of vice.Collection: Vices
It is easier to be mistaken about the true than the beautiful.Collection: Beautiful
Men must be either the slaves of duty, or the slaves of force.Collection: Men
All disputation makes the mind deaf; and when people are deaf, I am dumb.Collection: People
Contempt for private wrongs was one of the features of ancient morals.Collection: Moral
Fully to understand a grand and beautiful thought requires, perhaps, as much time as to conceive it.Collection: Beautiful
The last word should be the last word. It is like a finishing touch given to color; there is nothing more to add. But what precaution is needed in order not to put the last word first.Collection: Order