Vauvenargues quotes

Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues (6 August1715 – 28 May1747) was a French moralist, essayist, and miscellaneous writer.

Quotes

• Les grandes pensées viennent du coeur.
  • Great thoughts come from the heart.
    • Maxim 127 in Réflexions et maximes ("Reflections and Maxims") (1746); this can be compared with "High-erected thoughts seated in the heart of courtesy", Sir Philip Sidney, Defence of Poesy (1581, published 1595).

• La nécessité nous délivre de l'embarras du choix.
  • Necessity relieves us from the embarrassment of choice.
  • Maxim 592 in Reflections and Maxims (1746), as translated by F. G. Stevens.

• Ceux qui médisent toujours, nuisent rarement; ils méditent plus de mal qu'ils n'en peuvent faire.
  • Those who continually slander, rarely do injury: they imagine more evil than they can accomplish.
  • Maxim 626 in Reflections and Maxims (1746) (tr. F. G. Stevens)

• La clarté est la bonne foi des philosophes
  • Clarity is the good faith of philosophers
  • Maxim 729, Réflexions et maxim
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    Château of Vauvenargues

    Fortified bastide in Vauvenargues, France

    The Château of Vauvenargues (French: Château de Vauvenargues) is a fortified bastide in the village of Vauvenargues, situated to the north of Montagne Sainte-Victoire, just outside the town of Aix-en-Provence in the south of France.

    Built on a site occupied since Roman times, it became a seat of the Counts of Provence in the Middle Ages, passing to the Archbishops of Aix in the thirteenth century. It acquired its present architectural form in the seventeenth century as the family home of the marquis de Vauvenargues. After the French Revolution it was sold to the Isoard family, who despite their humble origins eventually installed their coat of arms in the chateau. Nineteenth century additions include a ceramic maiolica profile in the Italian Renaissance style of René of Anjou, one of the former owners, and a small shrine containing the relics of St Severin.

    In 1929 the chateau was officially listed as a historic monument.^[1] In 1943 it was sold by the Isoard family to three industrialists fro

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    Luc de Clapiers, marquis de Vauvenargues

    French writer, nobleman and moralist (1715–1747)

    Luc de Clapiers, marquis de Vauvenargues (French:[vovnaʁɡ]; 6 August 1715 – 28 May 1747) was a French writer and moralist. He died at age 31, in broken health, having published the year prior—anonymously—a collection of essays and aphorisms with the encouragement of Voltaire, his friend. He first received public notice under his own name in 1797, and from 1857 on, his aphorisms became popular. In the history of French literature, his significance lies chiefly in his friendship with Voltaire (20 years his senior).

    Life

    He was born in Aix-en-Provence into the nobility, but his family was poor. He spent his youth at the family seat, Chateau of Vauvenargues. Frail health prevented him from pursuing any but minimal schooling; he did not study Latin or Greek. He also suffered poor eyesight. In boyhood, he became friends with Victor Riqueti, marquis of Mirabeau (born 1715), father of the future French Revolution figure, Mirabeau, and with the future archaeologist, Ju