Francois De La Rochefoucauld quotes: wise famous quotes, sayings and quotations by Francois De La Rochefoucauld

Francois De La Rochefoucauld Famous Quotes & Sayings

Discover top inspirational quotes from Francois De La Rochefoucauld on Wise Famous Quotes.

It is easier to rule others than to keep from being ruled oneself.

The world more often rewards the appearances of merit than merit itself.

Those who have the most cunning affect all their lives to condemn cunning; that they may make use of it on some great occasion, and to some great end.

There are fine things that are more brilliant when they are unfinished than when finished too much.

Our merit gains us the esteem of the virtuous-our star that of the public.

Only the contemptible fear contempt.

Moderation is like sobriety: you would like to have some more, but are afraid of making yourself ill.

When we are unable to find tranquility within ourselves, it is useless to seek it elsewhere.

To praise great actions with sincerity may be said to be taking part in them.

Man only blames himself in order that he may be praised.

Jealousy is nothing more than a fear of abandonment

A certain harmony should be kept between actions and ideas if we want to fully develop the effects they can produce.

The soul's maladies have their relapses like the body's. What we take for a cure is often just a momentary rally or a new form of the disease.

We only confess our little faults to persuade people that we have no big ones.

Gallantry of mind consists in saying flattering things in an agreeable manner.

However rare true love may be, it is less so than true friendship.

The moderation of men in the most exalted fortunes is a desire to be thought above those things that have raised them so high.

We forget our faults easily when they are known to ourselves alone.

True love is like ghosts which many believe in, but few have seen.

We are very far from always knowing our own wishes.

The only thing constant in life is change.

Eloquence: saying the proper thing and stopping.

The good or the bad fortune of men depends not less upon their own dispositions than upon fortune.

That man, we may be sure, is a person of true worth, whom those who envy him most are yet forced to praise.

No man can love a second time the person whom he has once truly ceased to love.

It is sometimes necessary to play the fool to avoid being deceived by cunning men.

In friendship, as in love, we are often more happy from the things we are ignorant of than from those we are acquainted with.

We say little, when vanity does not make us speak.

Women know not the whole of their coquetry.

Women can less easily surmount their coquetry than their passions.

It is often laziness and timidity that keep us within our duty while virtue gets all the credit.

A weakling is incapable of sincerity.

A man cannot please long who has only one kind of wit.

Sobriety is love of health, or inability to eat much.

As the great ones of this world are unable to bestow health of body or peace of mind, we always pay too high a price for any good they can do.

It is more shameful to distrust one's friends than to be deceived by them

The height of cleverness is to be able to conceal it.

We promise in proportion to our hopes, and we deliver in proportion to our fears.

Some people displease with merit, and others' very faults and defects are pleasing.

We may say of agreeableness, as distinct from beauty, that it is a symmetry whose rules are unknown.

A resolution never to deceive exposes a man to be often deceived.

Too great refinement is false delicacy, and true delicacy is solid refinement.

The passions are the only orators which always persuade.

In the human heart there is a ceaseless birth of passions, so that the destruction of one is almost always the establishment of another.

What seems to be generosity is often no more than disguised ambition, which overlooks a small interest in order to secure a great one.

Were we perfectly acquainted with the object, we should never passionately desire it.

It is no tragedy to do ungrateful people favors, but it is unbearable to be indebted to a scoundrel.

It is impossible to love a second time what we have really ceased to love.

Not all those who know their minds know their hearts as well.

There are women who never had an intrigue; but there are scarce any who never had but one.

The word virtue is as useful to self-interest as the vices.

The boldest stroke and best act of friendship is not to disclose our own failings to a friend, but to show him his own.

The gratitude of most men is but a secret desire of receiving greater benefits.

Nature has concealed at the bottom of our minds talents and abilities of which we are not aware.

There are heroes of wickedness, as there are of goodness.

None deserve praise for being good who have not the spirit to be bad: goodness, for the most part, is nothing but indolence or weakness of will.

A woman is faithful to her first lover for a long time - unless she happens to take a second.

Perfect courage is to do without witnesses what one would be capable of doing with the world looking on.

Good and bad fortune are found severally to visit those who have the most of the one or the other.

We come altogether fresh and raw into the several stages of life, and often find ourselves without experience, despite our years.

The rust of business is sometimes polished off in a camp; but never in a court.

There are very few people who are not ashamed of having been in love when they no longer love each other.

We rarely ever perceive others as being sensible, except for those who agree with us.

We often credit ourselves with vices the reverse of what we have, thus when weak we boast of our obstinacy.

Avarice is more directly opposed to thrift than generosity is.

A man's worth has its season, like fruit.

Gratitude is merely the secret hope of further favors.

To listen closely and reply well is the highest perfection we are able to attain in the art of conversation.

People would never fall in love if they hadn't heard love talked about.

Ordinary men commonly condemn what is beyond them.

Too great haste to repay an obligation is a kind of ingratitude.

There may be talent without position, but there is no position without some kind of talent.

The duration of our passions is no more dependent on ourselves than the duration of our lives.

True friendship destroys envy, and true love destroys coquetterie.

The accent of a man's native country remains in his mind and his heart, as it does in his speech.

The man whom no one pleases is much more unhappy than the man who pleases no one.

A man is ridiculous less through the characteristics he has than through those he affects to have.

Behind many acts that are thought ridiculous there lie wise and weighty motives.

The reason why most women have so little sense of friendship is that this is but a cold and flat passion to those that have felt that of love.

However we may conceal our passions under the veil ... there is always some place where they peep out.

We should desire very few things passionately if we did but perfectly know the nature of the things we desire.

There are more defects in temperament than in the mind.

We confess our little faults to persuade people that we have no large ones.

Those whom the world has delighted to honor have oftener been influenced in their doings by ambition and vanity than by patriotism.

The passions of youth are not more dangerous to health than is the lukewarmness of old age.

The pleasure of love is in the loving; and there is more joy in the passion one feels than in that which one inspires ...

Decency is the least of all laws, but yet it is the law which is most strictly observed.

One is never fortunate or as unfortunate as one imagines.

We always like those who admire us; we do not always like those whom we admire

Nature makes merit, and fortune puts it to work.

If we have not peace within ourselves, it is in vain to seek it from outward sources.

The intellect of the generality of women serves more to fortify their folly than their reason.

A true friend is the greatest of all blessings, and that which we take the least care of all to acquire.

It is far easier to be wise for others than to be so for oneself.

Perhaps being old is having lighted rooms inside your head, and people in them, acting. People you know, yet can't quite name.

We acknowledge that we should not talk of our wives; but we seem not to know that we should talk still less of ourselves.

The greatest fault of a penetrating wit is to go beyond the mark.

Idleness is more an infirmity of the mind than of the body.

Simplicity is a delicate imposition.

The one thing people are the most liberal with, is their advice.