Francois De La Rochefoucauld Quotes
Top 100 wise famous quotes and sayings by Francois De La Rochefoucauld
However we may conceal our passions under the veil ... there is always some place where they peep out. 
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. 
Behind many acts that are thought ridiculous there lie wise and weighty motives. 
A man is ridiculous less through the characteristics he has than through those he affects to have. 
The man whom no one pleases is much more unhappy than the man who pleases no one. 
The accent of a man's native country remains in his mind and his heart, as it does in his speech. 
True friendship destroys envy, and true love destroys coquetterie. 
The duration of our passions is no more dependent on ourselves than the duration of our lives. 
There may be talent without position, but there is no position without some kind of talent. 
The rust of business is sometimes polished off in a camp; but never in a court. 
Ordinary men commonly condemn what is beyond them. 
People would never fall in love if they hadn't heard love talked about. 
To listen closely and reply well is the highest perfection we are able to attain in the art of conversation. 
Gratitude is merely the secret hope of further favors. 
A man's worth has its season, like fruit. 
Avarice is more directly opposed to thrift than generosity is. 
We often credit ourselves with vices the reverse of what we have, thus when weak we boast of our obstinacy. 
We rarely ever perceive others as being sensible, except for those who agree with us. 
There are very few people who are not ashamed of having been in love when they no longer love each other. 
Too great haste to repay an obligation is a kind of ingratitude. 
The one thing people are the most liberal with, is their advice. 
Simplicity is a delicate imposition. 
Idleness is more an infirmity of the mind than of the body. 
The greatest fault of a penetrating wit is to go beyond the mark. 
We acknowledge that we should not talk of our wives; but we seem not to know that we should talk still less of ourselves. 
Perhaps being old is having lighted rooms inside your head, and people in them, acting. People you know, yet can't quite name. 
It is far easier to be wise for others than to be so for oneself. 
A true friend is the greatest of all blessings, and that which we take the least care of all to acquire. 
The intellect of the generality of women serves more to fortify their folly than their reason. 
We should desire very few things passionately if we did but perfectly know the nature of the things we desire. 
Nature makes merit, and fortune puts it to work. 
We always like those who admire us; we do not always like those whom we admire 
One is never fortunate or as unfortunate as one imagines. 
Decency is the least of all laws, but yet it is the law which is most strictly observed. 
The pleasure of love is in the loving; and there is more joy in the passion one feels than in that which one inspires ... 
The passions of youth are not more dangerous to health than is the lukewarmness of old age. 
Those whom the world has delighted to honor have oftener been influenced in their doings by ambition and vanity than by patriotism. 
We confess our little faults to persuade people that we have no large ones. 
There are more defects in temperament than in the mind. 
If we have not peace within ourselves, it is in vain to seek it from outward sources. 
It is more shameful to distrust one's friends than to be deceived by them 
Sobriety is love of health, or inability to eat much. 
We promise in proportion to our hopes, and we deliver in proportion to our fears. 
Too great refinement is false delicacy, and true delicacy is solid refinement. 
The passions are the only orators which always persuade. 
What seems to be generosity is often no more than disguised ambition, which overlooks a small interest in order to secure a great one. 
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. 
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. 
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. 
We come altogether fresh and raw into the several stages of life, and often find ourselves without experience, despite our years. 
It is impossible to love a second time what we have really ceased to love. 
Good and bad fortune are found severally to visit those who have the most of the one or the other. 
There are heroes of wickedness, as there are of goodness. 
It is no tragedy to do ungrateful people favors, but it is unbearable to be indebted to a scoundrel. 
Were we perfectly acquainted with the object, we should never passionately desire it. 
A resolution never to deceive exposes a man to be often deceived. 
We may say of agreeableness, as distinct from beauty, that it is a symmetry whose rules are unknown. 
The height of cleverness is to be able to conceal it. 
Some people displease with merit, and others' very faults and defects are pleasing. 
In the human heart there is a ceaseless birth of passions, so that the destruction of one is almost always the establishment of another.