We come too late to say anything which has not been said already
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"Tout est dit, et l'on vient trop tard depuis plus de sept mille qu'il y a des hommes et qui pensent" (English: We come too late to say anything which has not been said already) is a dictum by Jean de La Bruyère, recorded in The Characters.
De La Bruyère adopts the chronology of the Greek lexicographer Suidas who flourished during the latter end of the eleventh century ; according to the Hebrew chronology the world had only existed 5692 years when the " Characters " were first published in 1688.
Full text:
- 1. — Tout eſt dit, & l’on vient trop tard depuis plus de ſept mille ans qu’il y a des hommes & qui penſent. Sur ce qui concerne les mœurs, le plus beau & meilleur eſt enlevé ; l’on ne foit que glaner après les anciens & les habiles d’entre les modernes. [1]
English translation:
- ( I.) AFTER above seven thousand years, during which there have been men who have thought we come too late to say anything that has not been said already, the finest and most beautiful ideas on morals and manners have been swept away before our times, and nothing is left for us but to glean after the ancients and the ablest amongst the moderns.
Alternative translations:
- All has been said, and one comes too late after the seven thousand years during which men have existed — and thought.
- Everything has been said, and we have come too late, now that men have been living and thinking for seven thousand years and more.
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See also
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