See also Jean de La Bruyère on Wikipedia; and our 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica disclaimer . LA BRUYÈRE, JEAN DE (1645–1696), French essayist and moralist, was born in Paris on the 16th of August 1645, and not, as was once the common statement, at Dourdan (Seine-et-Oise) in 1639. His family was of the middle class, and his reference …