When what you read elevates your mind and fills you with noble aspirations, look for no other rule by which to judge a book; it is good, and is the work of a master-hand.
Jean De La BruyereRead
The most important things must be said simply, for they are spoiled by bombast; whereas trivial things must be described grandly, for they are supported only by aptness of expression, tone and manner.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Important ideas should be expressed simply to maintain their essence, while trivial matters require elaborate language to gain significance.
In this quote, Jean De La Bruyere emphasizes the distinction between the way we communicate profound truths and insignificant details. He suggests that the essence of significant thoughts can be lost if they are overly complicated or embellished, and conversely, that less important ideas often need an elaborate presentation in order to capture attention and convey meaning effectively.
Themes
SimplicityCommunicationExpressionMeaningSignificance
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a speech about effective communication.
More from Jean De La Bruyere
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We seldom repent of speaking little, very often of speaking too much: a vulgar and trite maxim, which all the world knows and, but which all the world does not practice
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False greatness is unsociable and remote: conscious of its own frailty, it hides, or at least averts its face, and reveals itself only enough to create an illusion and not be recognized as the meanness that it really is. True greatness is free, kind, familiar and popular; it lets itself be touched and handled, it loses nothing by being seen at close quarters; the better one knows it, the more one admires it.
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From time to time there appear on the face of the earth men of rare and consummate excellence, who dazzle us by their virtue, and whose outstanding qualities shed a stupendous light. Like those extraordinary stars of whose origins we are ignorant, and of whose fate, once they have vanished, we know even less, such men have neither forebears nor descendants: they are the whole of their race.
Jean De La BruyereRead
Every man is valued in this world as he shows by his conduct that he wishes to be valued.
Jean De La BruyereRead
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