A well-born man is fortunate, but so is the man about whom people no longer ask, is he well-born?

[S’il est heureux d’avoir de la naissance, il ne l’est pas moins d’être tel qu’on ne s’informe plus si vous en avez.]

Jean de La Bruyere
Jean de La Bruyère (1645-1696) French essayist, moralist
The Characters [Les Caractères], ch. 2 “Of Personal Merit [Du Mérite Personnel],” § 21 (2.21) (1688) [tr. Stewart (1970)]
    (Source)

(Source (French)). Alternate translations:

If 'tis a happiness to be nobly Descended, 'tis no less to have so much Merit, that our Birth is the least thing considered in us.
[Bullord ed. (1696)]

If it is a Happiness to be nobly Descended, it is not less to have so much Merit, that no body enquires whether we are so or no.
[Browne ed. (1752)]

If it be a happiness to be of noble parentage, it is no less so to possess so much merit that nobody inquires whether we are noble or plebeian.
[tr. Van Laun (1885)]

It is a happiness to be nobly descended; it is not a lesser happiness to have so much merit that nobody enquires whether you are so or not.
[tr. Lee (1903), "Brief Reflexions on Men and Things"]


 
Added on 4-Mar-22 | Last updated 11-Jul-23
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