Writer · French · 1613 – 1680 · 243 quotes
The desire of talking of ourselves, and showing those faults we do not mind having seen, makes up a good part of our sincerity.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Writer · French · 1613 – 1680
We would rather speak ill of ourselves than not talk about ourselves at all.
Nothing prevents one from appearing natural as the desire to appear natural.
Gracefulness is to the body what understanding is to the mind.
Those who occupy their minds with small matters, generally become incapable of greatness.
Those who are incapable of committing great crimes do not readily suspect them in others.
How can we expect another to keep our secret if we have been unable to keep it ourselves?
The sure way to be cheated is to think one's self more cunning than others.
We do not despise all those who have vices, but we do despise those that have no virtue.
Perfect valour consists in doing without witnesses that which we would be capable of doing before everyone.
There are but very few men clever enough to know all the mischief they do.
The sure mark of one born with noble qualities is being born without envy.
There are bad people who would be less dangerous if they were quite devoid of goodness.
They that apply themselves to trifling matters commonly become incapable of great ones.
It is a great act of cleverness to be able to conceal one's being clever.
What is called generosity is usually only the vanity of giving; we enjoy the vanity more than the thing given.
The principal point of cleverness is to know how to value things just as they deserve.
Absence diminishes mediocre passions and increases great ones, as the wind extinguishes candles and fans fires.
Mediocre minds usually dismiss anything which reaches beyond their own understanding.
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.
Silence is the safest course for any man to adopt who distrust himself.
True love is like ghosts, which everyone talks about and few have seen.
Flattery is a kind of bad money, to which our vanity gives us currency.
We get so much in the habit of wearing disguises before others that we finally appear disguised before ourselves.
The mind cannot long play the heart's role.
The happiness and misery of men depend no less on temper than fortune.
Never give anyone the advice to buy or sell shares, because the most benevolent price of advice can turn out badly.
Some people displease with merit, and others' very faults and defects are pleasing.
We should often blush for our very best actions, if the world did but see all the motives upon which they were done.
There is only one kind of love, but there are a thousand imitations.
Gratitude is merely the secret hope of further favors.
On neither the sun, nor death, can a man look fixedly.
We promise in proportion to our hopes, and we deliver in proportion to our fears.
Great souls are not those who have fewer passions and more virtues than others, but only those who have greater designs.
Confidence contributes more to conversation than wit.
No man is clever enough to know all the evil he does.
We are never so ridiculous through what we are as through what we pretend to be.
A man is sometimes as different from himself as he is from others.
Our virtues are often, in reality, no better than vices disguised.
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.
The more one loves a mistress, the more one is ready to hate her.
Weakness of character is the only defect which cannot be amended.
We are easily comforted for the misfortunes of our friends, when those misfortunes give us an occasion of expressing our affection and solicitude.
We only confess our little faults to persuade people that we have no big ones.
Self-interest makes some people blind, and others sharp-sighted.
There are few virtuous women who are not bored with their trade.
Most of our faults are more pardonable than the means we use to conceal them.
The moderation of people in prosperity is the effect of a smooth and composed temper, owing to the calm of their good fortune.
