One promises much, to avoid giving little.

Luc de Clapiers (1715 CE-1747 CE), Luc de Clapiers, marquis de Vauvenargues was a French writer and moralist. He died at age 31, in broken health, having published the year prior—anonymously—a collection of essays and aphorisms with the encouragement of Voltaire, his friend (20 years his senior). He first received public notice under his own name in 1797, and from 1857 on, his aphorisms became popular.