"Marriage, it seems, confines every man to his proper rank." -Jean de La Bruyere
The 17th-century French essayist and moralist's book, Les Caracteres (1688), is organized into broad categories dealing with people and society: women, clergy, fashion. This line comes from "Of Personal Merit," Bruyere's essay on social standing and innate worth. "Many men have only their name to commend them," he wrote. "When you see them close, they are of no account; from a distance, they take you in."