Jean De La Bruyere

One must laugh before one is happy, or one may die without ever laughing at all.

The great gift of conversation lies less in displaying it ourselves than in drawing it out of others. He who leaves your company pleased with himself and his own cleverness is perfectly well pleased with you.

Time makes friendship stronger, but love weaker.

Two persons cannot long be friends if they cannot forgive each other's little failings.

A man who is free and unmarried, if he has some intelligence, can rise above his fortune, mingle in society and meet the best people on an equal footing. This is harder for a married man: marriage, it seems, confines every man to his proper rank.

At the beginning and at the end of love, the two lovers are embarrassed to find themselves alone.

It is a sad thing when men have neither enough intelligence to speak well nor enough sense to hold their tongues; this is the root of all impertinence.