“Reflections and maxims” by Vovenarg in brief summary
It is easier to say a new word than to reconcile words that have already been said between themselves.
Our mind is more perceptive than consistent, and covers more than we can comprehend.
If a thought can not be expressed in simple words, then it is insignificant and must be discarded.
Express a false thought clearly, and she will refute herself.
An unchanging stinginess in praise is a sure sign of a superficial mind.
Fervent ambition casts out of our lives all joy – it wants to rule unanimously.
The best support in unhappiness is not intelligence, but courage.
Neither wisdom nor freedom is combined with weakness.
Reason is not allowed to correct what is by its very nature imperfect.
You can not be fair without being human.
It is one thing to soften the rules of virtue in the name of its triumph, the other is to equate it with vice for the sake of nullifying it.
We do not like it when people feel sorry
Young people do not know what beauty is: they only know passion.
It is worth to feel that a person has nothing to respect for us – and we almost begin to hate him.
Pleasure teaches the sovereign to feel just a man.
The one who demands payment for his honesty, most often sells his honor.
A fool is always convinced that no one will be able to convince him of a clever man.
A few boobs, sitting down at the table, announce: “Where there is no us, there is no good society.” And everyone believes them.
Smart people would be all alone if the fools did not count themselves.
It is not easy to appreciate a person the way he wants.
Let a man who does not have great talents be comforted by the same thought as a man who does not have large ranks: in heart one can be higher than both.
Our judgment about others is not so volatile as about ourselves. The one who believes that the poor is always above the rich is wrong.
People are only willing to provide services until they feel that it is within their power.
He who is
A great man takes up great things, because he is aware of their greatness, a fool – because he does not understand how difficult they are.
Strength easily overcomes ingenuity.
Excessive circumspection is no less harmful than its opposite: there is little use for people who are always afraid, as if they were not cheating.
Bad people are always shocked by the discovery that respectable people are capable of wit.
Seldom happens to express a sensible idea to someone who always tries to be original.
Someone else’s wit quickly gets bored.
Bad advice is far more influential than our own whims.
Mind leads us into deception more often than our nature.
Generosity is not obligated to give a report of prudence about the reasons for its actions.
The conscience of the dying slanders all life they have lived.
The thought of death is treacherous: captured by it, we forget to live.
Sometimes you think: life is so short that I do not need the slightest displeasure. But when a boring guest comes, I’m not able to get bored with some half an hour.
If even forethought can not make our life happy, then what can we say about carelessness.
How to know, perhaps, it is the passions that the mind owes to its most brilliant conquests.
If people did not appreciate the glory, they would not have the mind or valor of it. to deserve.
People usually torture their neighbors under the pretext that they wish them well.
To punish without need is to challenge the Lord’s mercy.
No one sympathizes with a fool on the sole basis that he is stupid, and this, perhaps, is reasonable; but how absurd is it to believe that in his stupidity he is guilty!
Totally disgusting, but also more common is the ancient as the world ingratitude of children towards their parents. Sometimes our weaknesses tie us to each other no less than the highest virtues.
Hatred overpowers friendship, but passes before love.
Whoever is born to be subdued, he will be submissive on the throne.
Those who are deprived of power are looking for someone to obey, because they need protection.
Who is able to endure all, it is given to all dare.
Other insults are best swallowed silently, so as not to cover himself with dishonor.
We want to believe that satiety tells us about imperfections, about the imperfection of what we are fed up with, while in reality it is only a consequence of the exhaustion of our feelings, a testimony of our infirmity.
Man dreams of peace, but he finds joy only in activity, only he cherishes it.
An insignificant atom, called a human, is able to grasp the universe in one glance in all its endless changes.
Who showered a mockery of propensity to things serious, he is seriously committed to trifles.
His special talent is a peculiar taste. It is not always one author who belittles another only out of envy.
It is not fair when Deprivo is put next to Racine: for the first has succeeded in comedy-a low genre, the second in a tragedy, high.
In the arguments, examples should be few; Do not be distracted by side topics, and immediately state the final conclusion.
The mind of most scientists is like a gluttonous man, but with a bad digestion.
Knowledge of the superficial is always fruitless, and at times and harmful: it forces you to waste your energy on trifles and only amuses the fools’ pride.
Philosophers blacken human nature; we imagine that we ourselves are so different from the whole human race that, by slandering it, we ourselves remain untainted. Man is now in disgrace with the minds.
Great people, having taught the weak-minded to reflect, guided them to the path of reflection.
It is not true that equality is the law of nature. Subordination and dependence is her supreme law.
The subjects are flattering to the sovereigns as if with much fervor, than they listen to this flattery. The desire to get something is always sharper than the pleasure already gained.
A rare person can, without flinching, endure the truth or say it in the eyes.
Let us and are pricked for vanity, all the same we sometimes just need to hear how great our dignity.
People rarely reconcile themselves with humiliation: they simply forget about it.
The more modest the position of a person in the world, the more unpunished his actions and the more inconspicuous – merit.
Inevitability alleviates even such troubles, before which the mind is powerless.
Despair overcomes not only our failures, but our weakness.
Criticizing the author is easy, difficult to assess.
The works can be liked, even if something is wrong in them, because there is no correctness in our reasoning either, as in the author’s reasoning. Our taste is easier to satisfy than the mind.
It’s easier to capture the whole earth than to take the least talent for yourself.
All the leaders are eloquent, but they are unlikely to succeed in poetry, for such a high art is incompatible with the bustle that is necessary in politics.
It is impossible to deceive people for a long time, where there is a matter of profit. You can deceive the whole people, but you have to be honest with each person individually. Lying is weak by nature – therefore, speakers are sincere, at least in details. Therefore, in itself, the truth is higher and more eloquent than any art.
Unfortunately, a talented person always wants to belittle other talents. Therefore, one should not judge poetry from the statements of a physicist.
To praise a person is necessary even in life, if he deserves it. To praise from the heart is not dangerous, it is dangerous to dishonor undeservedly.
Envy does not know how to hide, it leans on the most indisputable merits. She is blind, irrepressible, insane, rude.
There are no contradictions in nature.
It is supposed that one who serves virtue, obeying reason, is able to exchange it for a useful defect. Yes, so it would be if the vice could be useful – in the eyes of a man who can reason.
If people do not suffer from self-love, it is useful and natural. We are receptive to friendship, justice, humanity, compassion and reason. Is not this the virtue?
Laws, while providing people peace, diminish their freedom.
Nobody is ambitious at the behest of reason and is vicious in stupidity.
Our actions are less kind and less vicious than our desires.
People reason: “Why should you know where the truth is, when you know where the pleasure is?”
The strength or weakness of our faith depends more on courage than on intelligence. He who laughs at signs is not smarter than he who believes them.
In what only people do not convince fear and hope!
No unbeliever will die peacefully if he thinks: “I’ve been mistaken a thousand times, so I could have been mistaken about religion.” Now I have neither the strength nor the time to reflect on this – I’m dying… “
Faith is the comfort of the destitute and the scourge of the lucky ones.
Life is brief, but it can not either divert us from its joys, or console us in its sorrows.
The world is full of cold minds, which, not being able to come up with anything themselves, are comforted by the fact that they reject other people’s thoughts.
By weakness or fear of incurring contempt for themselves, people hide the most cherished, ineradicable and sometimes virtuous inclinations.
The art of liking is the ability to deceive.
We are too inattentive or too self-absorbed to study each other.
(1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)