"To be among people one loves, that's sufficient; to dream, to speak to them, to be silent among them, to think of indifferent things; but among them, everything is equal"
About this Quote
The genius is in the inventory of ordinary acts: to dream, to speak, to be silent, to think of “indifferent things.” He doesn’t romanticize intimacy as constant confession or rapture; he insists that even boredom becomes weightless in the right company. “Indifferent” is the tell: love doesn’t sanctify every topic, it dissolves the need for sanctification. You’re allowed to be trivial, unfinished, uninteresting. That permission is the real luxury.
“But among them, everything is equal” is both comfort and critique. Comfort, because affection levels the inner world; your anxious hierarchy of what matters and what doesn’t stops barking. Critique, because it implies the rest of social life is an exhausting inequality of attention: some gestures count, some words buy status, some silences are punished. With loved ones, the scales don’t disappear; they’re simply irrelevant. La Bruyere’s intent is to argue, with understated edge, that the highest form of belonging is not intensity but ease.
Quote Details
| Topic | Friendship |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Bruyère, Jean de La. (2026, January 17). To be among people one loves, that's sufficient; to dream, to speak to them, to be silent among them, to think of indifferent things; but among them, everything is equal. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/to-be-among-people-one-loves-thats-sufficient-to-24144/
Chicago Style
Bruyère, Jean de La. "To be among people one loves, that's sufficient; to dream, to speak to them, to be silent among them, to think of indifferent things; but among them, everything is equal." FixQuotes. January 17, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/to-be-among-people-one-loves-thats-sufficient-to-24144/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"To be among people one loves, that's sufficient; to dream, to speak to them, to be silent among them, to think of indifferent things; but among them, everything is equal." FixQuotes, 17 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/to-be-among-people-one-loves-thats-sufficient-to-24144/. Accessed 21 Feb. 2026.








