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.
[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 Bruyère (1645-1696) French essayist, moralist
The Characters [Les Caractères], ch. 2 “Of Personal Merit [Du Mérite Personnel],” § 21 (2.21) (1688) [Bullord ed. (1696)]
(Source)
(Source (French)). Alternate translations:
If 'tis a Happiness to be nobly descended, 'tis no less to have so much Merit, that no body inquires whether we are so or no.
[Curll ed. (1713)]
If it is a Happiness to be nobly Descended it is not a 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)]
A well-born man is fortunate, but so is the man about whom people no longer ask, is he well-born?
[tr. Stewart (1970)]
