C.D. Warner, et al., comp. The Library of the World’s Best Literature.
An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.
Of the Family
By Joseph Joubert (1754–1824)
Translation of Thomas Wentworth Higginson
W
E should choose for a wife only such a woman as we should choose for a friend were she a man.
Nothing does a woman so much honor as her patience, and nothing so little as the patience of her husband.
We should wear our velvet inside; that is, be most amiable to those with whom we dwell at home.
The pleasure of pleasing is a legitimate one, and the desire to rule repulsive.
We should carry with us that indulgence and that habit of attention which call the thoughts of others into bloom.
We should pique ourselves on being reasonable, not on being right; on sincerity, not infallibility.
It is better to win than to command.
Before speaking ill of an eminent man, it might be well to wait till he has done ill.
A small supply of everything, a surfeit of nothing,—this is the key to moderation, wisdom, and content.
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