Jean de La Bruyère

Jean de La Bruyère (Known as "La Bruyère")

Moralist, Satirist, Academician, Author of Les Caractères ou les Mœurs de ce siècle

Born Aug 16, 1645

Paris, France

Passed Away May 11, 1696 Versailles, Kingdom of France

Lifespan 50 years old

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Notice / Correction

"Tout est dit, et l'on vient trop tard depuis plus de sept mille ans qu'il y a des hommes et qui pensent."

Archival Overview

Brilliant French moralist and satirist whose 1688 masterpiece Les Caractères ou les Mœurs de ce siècle captured the vanities, social climbing, and hypocrisy of seventeenth-century court and bourgeois society.

Biographical Record

Educated in law at Orléans, La Bruyère entered the household of the Grand Condé in 1684 on the recommendation of Bossuet, serving as tutor to the Duke's grandson, the Duke of Bourbon, giving him an intimate, unvarnished vantage point over Versailles.

In 1688, he published his translation of Theophrastus accompanied by his own original Caractères. Through razor-sharp maxims, witty portraits (such as the gluttonous Giton and impoverished Phédon), and trenchant social critiques, he exposed human vanity, famously opening: 'Tout est dit, et l'on vient trop tard'.

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Final Resting Place

Perpetual Memorial

Church of Saint-Roch
Paris, France

                         GPS: 48.8656, 2.3333                    

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