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Francois de La Rochefoucauld [1613-1680] French

Rank: 4
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François VI, Duc de La Rochefoucauld, Prince de Marcillac was a noted French author of maxims and memoirs. It is said that his world-view was clear-eyed and urbane, and that he neither condemned human conduct nor sentimentally celebrated it.

Friendship, Jealousy, Love, Wisdom, Good, Men, Change, Forgiveness, Great, Hope, Relationship, Strength, Women, Alone, Business, Chance, Courage, Death, Design, Happiness, Imagination, Knowledge, Money, Patience, Peace, Veterans Day

Quote	Tags	Rank
True love is like ghosts, which everyone talks about and few have seen.	Love	101
A true friend is the greatest of all blessings, and that which we take the least care of all to acquire.	Friendship	102
One forgives to the degree that one loves.	Forgiveness	103
Absence diminishes mediocre passions and increases great ones, as the wind extinguishes candles and fans fires.	Great, Relationship	104
In friendship as well as love, ignorance very often contributes more to our happiness than knowledge.	Friendship, Happiness, Knowledge, Love	105
There is no disguise which can hide love for long where it exists, or simulate it where it does not.	Love	106
Passion makes idiots of the cleverest men, and makes the biggest idiots clever.	Men	107
It is easier to be wise for others than for ourselves.		108
Politeness is a desire to be treated politely, and to be esteemed polite oneself.		109
The force we use on ourselves, to prevent ourselves from loving, is often more cruel than the severest treatment at the hands of one loved.		110
We are so accustomed to disguise ourselves to others that in the end we become disguised to ourselves.		111
Jealousy contains more of self-love than of love.	Jealousy	112
If we resist our passions, it is more due to their weakness than our strength.	Strength	113
There are various sorts of curiosity; one is from interest, which makes us desire to know that which may be useful to us; and the other, from pride which comes from the wish to know what others are ignorant of.		114
Hypocrisy is the homage vice pays to virtue.		115
Nothing is impossible; there are ways that lead to everything, and if we had sufficient will we should always have sufficient means. It is often merely for an excuse that we say things are impossible.		116
We would frequently be ashamed of our good deeds if people saw all of the motives that produced them.	Good	117
Flattery is a kind of bad money, to which our vanity gives us currency.	Money	118
Mediocre minds usually dismiss anything which reaches beyond their own understanding.		119
The reason that lovers never weary each other is because they are always talking about themselves.		120
There is only one kind of love, but there are a thousand imitations.	Love	121
Perfect Valor is to do, without a witness, all that we could do before the whole world.	Veterans Day	122
It is from a weakness and smallness of mind that men are opinionated; and we are very loath to believe what we are not able to comprehend.	Men	123
Some accidents there are in life that a little folly is necessary to help us out of.		124
As great minds have the faculty of saying a great deal in a few words, so lesser minds have a talent of talking much, and saying nothing.	Great	125
It is almost always a fault of one who loves not to realize when he ceases to be loved.	Relationship	126
Our concern for the loss of our friends is not always from a sense of their worth, but rather of our own need of them and that we have lost some who had a good opinion of us.		201
Jealousy is bred in doubts. When those doubts change into certainties, then the passion either ceases or turns absolute madness.	Change, Jealousy	202
When we are in love we often doubt that which we most believe.		203
Old people love to give good advice; it compensates them for their inability to set a bad example.		204
Good advice is something a man gives when he is too old to set a bad example.	Good	205
The intellect is always fooled by the heart.		206
Hope, deceiving as it is, serves at least to lead us to the end of our lives by an agreeable route.	Hope	207
There are bad people who would be less dangerous if they were quite devoid of goodness.		208
We always love those who admire us, but we do not always love those whom we admire.		209
Why is it that our memory is good enough to retain the least triviality that happens to us, and yet not good enough to recollect how often we have told it to the same person?		210
However rare true love may be, it is less so than true friendship.	Friendship	211
To achieve greatness one should live as if they will never die.		212
Decency is the least of all laws, but yet it is the law which is most strictly observed.		213
The sure mark of one born with noble qualities is being born without envy.		214
There is a kind of elevation which does not depend on fortune; it is a certain air which distinguishes us, and seems to destine us for great things; it is a price which we imperceptibly set upon ourselves.		215
If we are to judge of love by its consequences, it more nearly resembles hatred than friendship.	Friendship	216
What men have called friendship is only a social arrangement, a mutual adjustment of interests, an interchange of services given and received; it is, in sum, simply a business from which those involved propose to derive a steady profit for their own self-love.	Business, Friendship	217
We seldom find people ungrateful so long as it is thought we can serve them.		218
The accent of one's birthplace remains in the mind and in the heart as in one's speech.		219
We do not despise all those who have vices, but we do despise those that have no virtue.		220
It is great folly to wish to be wise all alone.	Alone, Wisdom	221
We promise according to our hopes and perform according to our fears.		222
There are very few things impossible in themselves; and we do not want means to conquer difficulties so much as application and resolution in the use of means.		223
The surest way to be deceived is to consider oneself cleverer than others.		224
Self-interest makes some people blind, and others sharp-sighted.		225
It is a great act of cleverness to be able to conceal one's being clever.		226
There are but very few men clever enough to know all the mischief they do.		301
Few people have the wisdom to prefer the criticism that would do them good, to the praise that deceives them.	Wisdom	302
People's personalities, like buildings, have various facades, some pleasant to view, some not.		303
On neither the sun, nor death, can a man look fixedly.	Death	304
We have no patience with other people's vanity because it is offensive to our own.	Patience	305
One can find women who have never had one love affair, but it is rare indeed to find any who have had only one.	Women	306
Our actions seem to have their lucky and unlucky stars, to which a great part of that blame and that commendation is due which is given to the actions themselves.		307
He who lives without folly isn't so wise as he thinks.		308
Heat of blood makes young people change their inclinations often, and habit makes old ones keep to theirs a great while.		309
Most people know no other way of judging men's worth but by the vogue they are in, or the fortunes they have met with.		310
All the passions make us commit faults; love makes us commit the most ridiculous ones.		311
Virtue would go far if vanity did not keep it company.		312
In most of mankind gratitude is merely a secret hope of further favors.	Hope	313
Nothing prevents one from appearing natural as the desire to appear natural.		314
People that are conceited of their own merit take pride in being unfortunate, that themselves and others may think them considerable enough to be the envy and the mark of fortune.		315
When a man must force himself to be faithful in his love, this is hardly better than unfaithfulness.		316
When a man is in love, he doubts, very often, what he most firmly believes.		317
We pardon to the extent that we love.		318
You can find women who have never had an affair, but it is hard to find a woman who has had just one.		319
People always complain about their memories, never about their minds.		320
We are more often treacherous through weakness than through calculation.		321
Quarrels would not last long if the fault was only on one side.		322
Men give away nothing so liberally as their advice.	Men	323
We confess our little faults to persuade people that we have no large ones.		324
It is not enough to have great qualities; We should also have the management of them.		325
We only acknowledge small faults in order to make it appear that we are free from great ones.		326
Gracefulness is to the body what understanding is to the mind.		401
We are nearer loving those who hate us than those who love us more than we wish.		402
Great souls are not those who have fewer passions and more virtues than others, but only those who have greater designs.		403
Those who occupy their minds with small matters, generally become incapable of greatness.		404
Too great haste to repay an obligation is a kind of ingratitude.		405
We often forgive those who bore us, but we cannot forgive those whom we bore.	Forgiveness	406
The defects and faults of the mind are like wounds in the body; after all imaginable care has been taken to heal them up, still there will be a scar left behind, and they are in continual danger of breaking the skin and bursting out again.		407
Many men are contemptuous of riches; few can give them away.		408
The name and pretense of virtue is as serviceable to self-interest as are real vices.		409
There is no better proof of a man's being truly good than his desiring to be constantly under the observation of good men.		410
Though men are apt to flatter and exalt themselves with their great achievements, yet these are, in truth, very often owing not so much to design as chance.	Chance, Design	411
Ridicule dishonors a man more than dishonor does.		412
We should often blush for our very best actions, if the world did but see all the motives upon which they were done.		413
If we have not peace within ourselves, it is in vain to seek it from outward sources.	Peace	414
Why can we remember the tiniest detail that has happened to us, and not remember how many times we have told it to the same person.		415
Nothing is so contagious as example; and we never do any great good or evil which does not produce its like.		416
The heart is forever making the head its fool.		417
Conceit causes more conversation than wit.		418
There are very few people who are not ashamed of having been in love when they no longer love each other.		419
How can we expect another to keep our secret if we have been unable to keep it ourselves?		420
If it were not for the company of fools, a witty man would often be greatly at a loss.		421
In the human heart new passions are forever being born; the overthrow of one almost always means the rise of another.		422
We all have enough strength to endure the misfortunes of others.	Strength	423
What seems to be generosity is often no more than disguised ambition, which overlooks a small interest in order to secure a great one.		424
Some people displease with merit, and others' very faults and defects are pleasing.		425
However glorious an action in itself, it ought not to pass for great if it be not the effect of wisdom and intention.	Wisdom	426
Innocence does not find near so much protection as guilt.		501
The accent of a man's native country remains in his mind and his heart, as it does in his speech.		502
It is with an old love as it is with old age a man lives to all the miseries, but is dead to all the pleasures.		503
The principal point of cleverness is to know how to value things just as they deserve.		504
We may seem great in an employment below our worth, but we very often look little in one that is too big for us.		505
It is often laziness and timidity that keep us within our duty while virtue gets all the credit.		506
Though nature be ever so generous, yet can she not make a hero alone. Fortune must contribute her part too; and till both concur, the work cannot be perfected.		507
A wise man thinks it more advantageous not to join the battle than to win.		508
One is never fortunate or as unfortunate as one imagines.	Imagination	509
Funeral pomp is more for the vanity of the living than for the honor of the dead.		510
It takes nearly as much ability to know how to profit by good advice as to know how to act for one's self.		511
A man's worth has its season, like fruit.		512
We come altogether fresh and raw into the several stages of life, and often find ourselves without experience, despite our years.		513
No man deserves to be praised for his goodness, who has it not in his power to be wicked. Goodness without that power is generally nothing more than sloth, or an impotence of will.	Good	514
Jealousy lives upon doubts. It becomes madness or ceases entirely as soon as we pass from doubt to certainty.	Jealousy	515
Gratitude is merely the secret hope of further favors.		516
No man is clever enough to know all the evil he does.		517
The desire to seem clever often keeps us from being so.		518
Perfect behavior is born of complete indifference.		519
Perhaps being old is having lighted rooms inside your head, and people in them, acting. People you know, yet can't quite name.		520
To know how to hide one's ability is great skill.		521
Weakness of character is the only defect which cannot be amended.		522
Confidence contributes more to conversation than wit.		523
Repentance is not so much remorse for what we have done as the fear of the consequences.		524
In love we often doubt what we most believe.		525
We give advice, but we cannot give the wisdom to profit by it.	Wisdom	526
The reason why so few people are agreeable in conversation is that each is thinking more about what he intends to say than others are saying.		601
Silence is the safest course for any man to adopt who distrust himself.		602
There are crimes which become innocent and even glorious through their splendor, number and excess.		603
Neither the sun nor death can be looked at with a steady eye.		604
We are more interested in making others believe we are happy than in trying to be happy ourselves.		605
The only thing that should surprise us is that there are still some things that can surprise us.		606
The mind is always the patsy of the heart.		607
In all professions each affects a look and an exterior to appear what he wishes the world to believe that he is. Thus we may say that the whole world is made up of appearances.		608
It is easier to appear worthy of a position one does not hold, than of the office which one fills.		609
Taste may change, but inclination never.	Change	610
The happiness and misery of men depend no less on temper than fortune.		611
As it is the characteristic of great wits to say much in few words, so small wits seem to have the gift of speaking much and saying nothing.		612
We always get bored with those whom we bore.		613
Pride does not wish to owe and vanity does not wish to pay.		614
The sure way to be cheated is to think one's self more cunning than others.		615
Jealously is always born with love but it does not die with it.		616
Being a blockhead is sometimes the best security against being cheated by a man of wit.		617
The defects of the mind, like those of the face, grow worse with age.		618
Perfect courage is to do without witnesses what one would be capable of doing with the world looking on.	Courage	619
The more one loves a mistress, the more one is ready to hate her.		620
We promise in proportion to our hopes, and we deliver in proportion to our fears.		621
Moderation is the feebleness and sloth of the soul, whereas ambition is the warmth and activity of it.		622
We are never so ridiculous through what we are as through what we pretend to be.		623
That good disposition which boasts of being most tender is often stifled by the least urging of self-interest.		624
Philosophy finds it an easy matter to vanquish past and future evils, but the present are commonly too hard for it.		625
Some counterfeits reproduce so very well the truth that it would be a flaw of judgment not to be deceived by them.		626
Pride, which inspires us with so much envy, is sometimes of use toward the moderating of it too.		701
The mind cannot long play the heart's role.		702
We are easily comforted for the misfortunes of our friends, when those misfortunes give us an occasion of expressing our affection and solicitude.		703
Every one speaks well of his own heart, but no one dares speak well of his own mind.		704
There are a great many men valued in society who have nothing to recommend them but serviceable vices.		705
There are few virtuous women who are not bored with their trade.	Women	706
We easily forgive our friends those faults that do no affect us ourselves.		707
Love can no more continue without a constant motion than fire can; and when once you take hope and fear away, you take from it its very life and being.		708
The first lover is kept a long while, when no offer is made of a second.		709
We are all strong enough to bear other men's misfortunes.		710
The generality of virtuous women are like hidden treasures, they are safe only because nobody has sought after them.		711
What makes the pain we feel from shame and jealousy so cutting is that vanity can give us no assistance in bearing them.	Jealousy	712
Our aversion to lying is commonly a secret ambition to make what we say considerable, and have every word received with a religious respect.		713
They that apply themselves to trifling matters commonly become incapable of great ones.		714
The moderation of people in prosperity is the effect of a smooth and composed temper, owing to the calm of their good fortune.		715
Most of our faults are more pardonable than the means we use to conceal them.		716
Everyone complains of his memory, and nobody complains of his judgment.		717
We are strong enough to bear the misfortunes of others.		718
We should often feel ashamed of our best actions if the world could see all the motives which produced them.		719
Perfect valour consists in doing without witnesses that which we would be capable of doing before everyone.		720
What is called generosity is usually only the vanity of giving; we enjoy the vanity more than the thing given.		721
The word virtue is as useful to self-interest as the vices.		722
Old age is a tyrant, who forbids, under pain of death, the pleasures of youth.		723
Old men are fond of giving good advice to console themselves for their inability to give bad examples.		724
We seldom find any person of good sense, except those who share our opinions.		725
If we had no faults of our own, we should not take so much pleasure in noticing those in others.		726
In the misfortunes of our best friends we always find something not altogether displeasing to us.		801
The virtues and vices are all put in motion by interest.		802
The passions are the only orators which always persuade.		803
A refusal of praise is a desire to be praised twice.		804
When we disclaim praise, it is only showing our desire to be praised a second time.		805
Few things are impracticable in themselves; and it is for want of application, rather than of means, that men fail to succeed.		806
Timidity is a fault for which it is dangerous to reprove persons whom we wish to correct of it.		807
Before we set our hearts too much upon anything, let us examine how happy they are, who already possess it.		808
There are heroes in evil as well as in good.		809
If we did not flatter ourselves, the flattery of others could never harm us.		810
Our virtues are often, in reality, no better than vices disguised.		811
A man is sometimes as different from himself as he is from others.		812
The greatest part of intimate confidences proceed from a desire either to be pitied or admired.		813
We seldom praise anyone in good earnest, except such as admire us.		814
We are very far from always knowing our own wishes.		815
Only the contemptible fear contempt.		816
The desire of talking of ourselves, and showing those faults we do not mind having seen, makes up a good part of our sincerity.		817
It is not in the power of even the most crafty dissimulation to conceal love long, where it really is, nor to counterfeit it long where it is not.		818
A great many men's gratitude is nothing but a secret desire to hook in more valuable kindnesses hereafter.		819
We do not praise others, ordinarily, but in order to be praised ourselves.		820
There is nothing men are so generous of as advice.		821
If we judge love by most of its effects, it resembles rather hatred than affection.		822
No men are oftener wrong than those that can least bear to be so.		823
He is not to pass for a man of reason who stumbles upon reason by chance but he who knows it and can judge it and has a true taste for it.		824
Whatever good things people say of us, they tell us nothing new.		825
When our vices leave us, we like to imagine it is we who are leaving them.		826
Men often pass from love to ambition, but they seldom come back again from ambition to love.		901
If there be a love pure and free from the admixture of our other passions, it is that which lies hidden in the bottom of our heart, and which we know not ourselves.		902
What keeps us from abandoning ourselves entirely to one vice, often, is the fact that we have several.		903
Nature seems at each man's birth to have marked out the bounds of his virtues and vices, and to have determined how good or how wicked that man shall be capable of being.		904
What we call generosity is for the most part only the vanity of giving; and we exercise it because we are more fond of that vanity than of the thing we give.		905
It's the height of folly to want to be the only wise one.		906
How is it that we remember the least triviality that happens to us, and yet not remember how often we have recounted it to the same person?		907
The man that thinks he loves his mistress for her own sake is mightily mistaken.		908
Not all those who know their minds know their hearts as well.		909
Nothing hinders a thing from being natural so much as the straining ourselves to make it seem so.		910
We get so much in the habit of wearing disguises before others that we finally appear disguised before ourselves.		911
We would rather speak ill of ourselves than not talk about ourselves at all.		912
I have always been an admirer. I regard the gift of admiration as indispensable if one is to amount to something; I don't know where I would be without it.		913
Never give anyone the advice to buy or sell shares, because the most benevolent price of advice can turn out badly.		914
The one thing people are the most liberal with, is their advice.		915
As one grows older, one becomes wiser and more foolish.		916
Usually we praise only to be praised.		917
We only confess our little faults to persuade people that we have no big ones.		918
Those who are incapable of committing great crimes do not readily suspect them in others.		919
It is easier to know men in general, than men in particular.		920
Love often leads on to ambition, but seldom does one return from ambition to love.		921
We are so used to dissembling with others that in time we come to deceive and dissemble with ourselves.		922
We may sooner be brought to love them that hate us, than them that love us more than we would have them do.		923
There is many a virtuous woman weary of her trade.		924
Women's virtue is frequently nothing but a regard to their own quiet and a tenderness for their reputation.		925
However greatly we distrust the sincerity of those we converse with, yet still we think they tell more truth to us than to anyone else.		926
Those that have had great passions esteem themselves for the rest of their lives fortunate and unfortunate in being cured of them.		1001
Fortune converts everything to the advantage of her favorites.		1002
We often pardon those that annoy us, but we cannot pardon those we annoy.		1003
We are sometimes as different from ourselves as we are from others.		1004
We say little, when vanity does not make us speak.		1005

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