To buy the book : here
Cons :
_My book indicated “illustrated” but had no illustrations…
_A few famous quotes might have deserved to be included.
Pros :
Here are some pearls… See by yourself:
_There are more dead than living and it is the dead who rule the living. Auguste Comte
_Vice flees where there is no weakness. Voltaire
_Tolerance is the virtue of the weak. Sade
_And he who forgives crime becomes its accomplice. Voltaire
_There are four kinds of people in the world: lovers, ambitious, observers and fools. Taine
_When in doubt, you must choose to be faithful. Mauriac
_Men are the machines of Providence. Voltaire
_The gentlest one always has claws on its paw. Florian
_He who knows how to possess himself can command the world. Voltaire
_Everything eventually yields to perseverance. Rigaud
_Prayer is the trembling sister of love. Victor Hugo
_Let us never show a soul that is too sensitive. Lebrun
_Fate may well separate us, but never disunite us. Rousseau
_There is cleanliness and elegance in sobriety. Joseph Joubert
_Wild animals are all solitary. Buffon
_The more serious the face, the more beautiful the smile. Chateaubriand
_Temperance seasons pleasure. Rigault
_When temptation comes, stand before God in the truth whatever it costs you, and you will find that, when the attack is repelled, you will have higher and purer desires than before. Pascal
_Overcoming oneself belongs to heroes. Lombard of Langres
_Indulgence in vice is a conspiracy against virtue. Barthélémy
_Man is born with his vices. He acquires his virtues. Jules Renard
_My heart abandons itself to this hope. Madame de Sévigné
_You are missing only one being, and everything is depopulated. Lamartine
_Often we regret the absence of all goods, hope alone does not leave us. Perrault
_His arms, in our farewells, could not leave me. Racine
_It’s nothing. Henry IV after the fatal stabbing of Ravaillac
_One’s job is to advise others, who sees nothing in his own affairs. La Fontaine
_Each age has its pleasures, its spirit and its morals. Boileau
_Help yourself and heaven will help you. La Fontaine
_Only discreet people know how to love. Voltaire
_Ambition never sees its wishes fulfilled, this is the barrel of the Danaids. Lebrun
_Ambition often leads to madness. Stassart
_The ambitious and the greedy languish in extreme poverty. La Bruyère
_Ambition leads men to the precipice. Fénélon
_True love is shy and discreet; he needs to be guessed. Du Tremblay
_Love me a little but keep going.
_What we learn in the cradle lasts until the grave.
_We can only rely on what resists. Arnault
_The language of fools is arrogant. Voltaire
_We are always the architects of our disgraces. Voltaire
_When avarice sets itself a goal, it ceases to be a vice, it is the means of a virtue. Balzac
_From the past we know the future.
_Astrologer talks about the future, but does not make it come.
_Who graps all, looses.
_In April don’t undress, in May go on.
_The nymphs, through innocent banter, played in the forests. Buffon
_Too much scratching cooked, too much talking harms.
_Good books create good morals.
_To live happy, live hidden. Florian
_Do not limit your glory to singing in a choir. Boileau
_Hope is the philosopher’s compass. Condillac
_What shines has always offended the vulgar. Stassart
_Calm, among kings, as well as on the waves, is always close to the storm. Jauffret
_The caprice of children is the work of bad discipline. Rousseau
_Every man has three characters: the one he has, the one he shows, and the one he believes he has. Alphonse Karr (this sentence corresponds to the fact that the Japanese believe that man wears 3 masks).
_You must have an equal character; without too much excitement, without any impatience, take the good, and bear the bad, compensate them in the same balance. Du Tremblay
_There is no cure for my sorrow. Madame de Sévigné
_Have one eye on the field and the other on the city (be vigilant).
_Owing a proud candle (when one had been saved from danger, it was customary to burn a candle to thank Heaven for its protection).
_Well-ordered charity begins with oneself (you must first think of yourself).
_Hunting is, as we know, the image of war. Nivernais
_The ear is the path to the heart. Voltaire
_A beautiful path is never long.
_We have never seen a goat die of starvation.
_Who loves me, loves my dog.
_Only old dogs hunt.
_All things came out of nothing. Pascal
_The genius of our language is clarity and elegance. Voltaire
_The heart has its reasons that reason does not know. Pascal
_The heart leads where it goes.
_Trade is a war made with money. Colbert
_Your misfortunes increase my misery. Voltaire
_We understand each other half-heartedly. Madame de Sévigné
_Trust is the mother of disappointment.
_Getting to know yourself is the first step. La Fontaine
_Know yourself, and you will know the universe and the gods (precept of the Greek philosophers).
_Nothing is given so liberally as his advice. La Rochefoucauld
_Small spark creates big fire.
_When in danger, we know the brave.
_Hope and fear are inseparable, and there is no fear without hope and no hope without fear. La Rochefoucauld
_To save your credit, you have to hide your loss. La Fontaine
_It is easier to demolish than to build.
_Cold blood is a great advantage. Haumont
_In all existences, we note a date when destiny bifurcates, either towards catastrophe or towards success. La Rochefoucauld
_We only triumph over slander by disdaining it. Madame de Maintenon
_Run away from an enemy who knows your fault. Corneille
_Knowing your faults is a real virtue. Nivernais
_Distrust is the mother of safety.
_Pride is never better disguised than when it hides under the guise of humility. La Rochefoucauld
_Virtue grows on despair.
_God punishes man for his faults by letting him live. Xavier Forneret
_It is better to address the Lord than his saints.
_True dignity, is in the heart, and not on the face. Formage
_Diplomacy is the police in full costume. Napoleon 1st
_To deliberate, as soon as a people assemble, discord always presides over its debates. Jauffret
_Men’s speeches are only masks that they apply to their actions. Stendhal
_Knowing how to conceal is the knowledge of kings. Richelieu
_The cousins rarely sympathize with each other, and brothers are too often divided for nothing. Neufchâteau
_Taste is a very rare gift. Voltaire
_Big pains are silent.
_Writing is almost always lying. Jules Renard
_Our real enemies are within ourselves. Bossuet
_Stubbornness represents character, much as temperament represents Love. Chamfort
_The thorn protects the rose, and the sting defends the honey. Neufchâteau
_Only those who do nothing never make a mistake.
_We can’t imagine how much wit it takes to never be ridiculous. Chamfort
_Knowledge and the mind do not always ride in a golden sedan. Gosse
_Regulate your passions, flee intemperance, this is the way to be esteemed. Agniel
_Big events come from small causes.
_Smell the faggot (being suspected of heresy. Allusion to the torture of fire inflicted on heretics).
_A fool thus abuses someone who makes himself too good. Lenoble
_Too much favor is not good.
_The most beautiful woman can only give what she has.
_A very beautiful woman is rough and rebellious.
_There is only one son that one is not jealous of.
_Great flatteries are silent. Paul Valery
_There is only faith that saves.
_He who lives without folly is not as wise as he thinks. La Rochefoucauld
_It’s madness to sow roses to swine.
_Meat and drink are the perdition of the house.
_Big dear, little testament.
_Fat cuisine, meager testament.
_Beware of the first movement, he is always generous. Talleyrand
_Sensitive to the services received
_A generous spirit pays them with usury. Lenoble
_Men of genius are meteors destined to burn to enlighten their century. Napoleon 1st
_You have to listen a lot and speak a little to act well in the government of a state. Richelieu
_Man is a sociable animal who hates his fellow human beings. Eugène Delacroix
_He who cannot conceal cannot reign.
_Private thieves are in the galleys, and public thieves are in the palaces.
_We are swimming in uncertainty. Voltaire
_The crude heart of prosperity cannot understand the delicate feelings of misfortune. Chateaubriand
_Good times and good life, father and mother forget.
_Indifference makes wise men and insensitivity makes monsters. Diderot
_Instinct never leads astray. Nivernais
_We only listen to instincts that are ours, and only believe evil when it has come. La Fontaine
_We prefer our own to the interests of others. Formage
_Rural minds are often jealous. La Fontaine
_Legs allow men to walk and women to make their way. Alphonse Allais
_It is fasting that makes a saint, and sobriety a man of good sense. Jules Renard
_July must roast what September will ripen.
_Sunny July fills cellar and attic.
_We are born in the middle of a labyrinth. Condillac
_How much harm the tongue causes us ! La Fontaine
_The wise man rests on the root of his tongue, and the fool flutters on the tip of his.
_It is better to bite your tongue before speaking than after speaking.
_The tongue is the falsest witness of the heart.
_The shine of our laurels is not worth what it costs. Neufchâteau
_The hare always returns to its shelter.
_If hares had guns, we would kill fewer of them.
_The moon announces rain by its paleness, by its redness the wind, and by its whiteness serenity.
_A good marriage would be that of a blind woman and a deaf man. Montaigne
_The bed is the whole marriage. Balzac
_More deaths, fewer enemies.
_Few maxims are true in every respect. Vauvenargues
_Distrust is the mother of safety. La Fontaine
_He who has almost been shipwreck fears even the calm waters.
_Who sings of his infortunes, makes his friends go away.
_The most beautiful thing about good deeds is wanting to hide them. Pascal
_Sheep are the quadrupeds with the least instinct. Buffon
_The sheep flock together, but the lions isolate himself. Rivarol
_Let’s never follow the first movement, neither love nor hatred. Lebrun
_We only make one imprudence in our life, but it is a big one : being born. Clémenceau
_Nature has the secret of happiness, and no one has been able to take it away from her. George Sand
_“Yes” and “no” are the shortest and easiest words to pronounce and those that require the most consideration. Talleyrand
_The night (The Moon) gives advices.
_The man in the shadows is the happy man. Nivernais
_Let’s prefer our darkness to the dangerous honor of governing men. Stassart
_When the opportunity arises, you have to grab her by the hair, otherwise, the fickle goddess is only a brilliant flash that fascinates our eyes. Coupe de Saint-Donat
_The eyes were always the doors of love. Lenoble
_Pride goes before falls. The Bible.
_Peace makes people happier and men weaker. Vauvenargues
_Between two ambitious hearts, worried, mutinous, envious, peace cannot be lasting. Lebrun
_Speech was given to us to disguise our thoughts. Talleyrand
_Looking to the past, is looking to the future. Boileau
_Patience and length of time are more than strength or rage. La Fontaine
_Patience overcomes everything. Du Tremblay
_A man’s wisdom is known by his patience.
_A fool is arrogant, a scholar is timid. Coupé de Saint-Donat
_Perseverance overcomes everything.
_Step by step we go very far.
_We often lose everything by wanting too much.
_The reason of the little ones seems an outrage to the big ones. Neufchateau
_The plowman finds his pharmacy in his guerets. Bernardin of Saint-Pierre
_The most innocent are the sweetest pleasures. Lebrun
_High politics is just common sense applied to big things. Napoleon 1st
_You should always keep a pear for thirst.
_Every man, if he is not dazed, must think of winter, when he is in summer. Perrault
_I don’t know what principles are, except rules that we prescribe to others for ourselves. Diderot
_No one is a prophet at home. La Fontaine
_Cleanliness embellishes opulence and disguises poverty. Rivarol
_In this world, it is too dangerous to be right. Voltaire
_Fantasy rules over reason.
_To reap you must have sown. Lebrun
_Reflection and youth do not easily combine. Nivernais
_Ridiculousness does not exist. Those who dared to defy him in the face conquered the world. Mirabeau
_There are no roses without thorns.
_There is no virtue without sacrifice. Bossuet
_The best health is not feeling your health. Jules Renard
_He who has no health has nothing; who has health has everything.
_Too much and too little education dulls the mind. Pascal
_Understanding comes with age. Voltaire
_Great captains write their actions simply. Montesquieu
_It is not a fault to be too sincere. But sometimes it’s a misfortune. Lebrun
_A smile does not always a good omen. Jauffret
_By the fingernails, we know the lion.
_People without noise are dangerous; it is not so with others. La Fontaine
_You have to take time as it comes, people for who they are, and money for what it’s worth.
_There is no secret that time does not reveal.
_Wealth is good. But peace is better. Ginguené
_Work keeps three great evils away from us : boredom, vice and need. Voltaire
_To the highest throne in the world, if we only sit on our back. Montaigne
_It is often a misfortune to be too useful. Lamotte
_Utility is better than extreme elegance. De La Broutaye
_Revenge is a dish best served cold.
_Truth breeds hatred.
_Virtue is degraded by justifying itself. Voltaire
_The hell of women is old age. La Rochefoucauld
_Old woman gets nothing more. Florian
_The sweetest harmony is the sound of the voice of the one you love. La Bruyère
_A poor person steals from you, we hang him. But for the rich, it’s different : watch out for items that suit them! Because they keep everything they take. Stassart
Conclusion :
An essential book to mature.
Alpha Centauri
