Francois De La Rochefoucauld Quotes

Tis a sort of coquetry to boast that we never coquet.

The passions often engender their contraries.

Every one complains of a poor memory, no one of a weak judgment.

Avarice is more directly opposed to thrift than generosity is.

Luxury and excessive refinement are sure forerunners of the decadence of states, because when all individuals seek their own interests they neglect the public weal.

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

One should treat one's fate as one does one's health; enjoy it when it is good, be patient with it when it is poor, and never attempt any drastic cure save as an ultimate resort.

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 judge so superficially of things, that common words and actions spoke and done in an agreeable manner, with some knowledge of what passes in the world, often succeed beyond the greatest ability.

If we took as much pains to be what we ought, as we do to deceive others by disguising what we are; we might appear as we are, without being at the trouble of any disguise.

There are no events so disastrous that adroit men do not draw some advantage from them, nor any so fortunate that the imprudent cannot turn to their own prejudice.

We sometimes think that we hate flattery, but we only hate the manner in which it is done. [Fr., On croit quelquefoir hair la flatterie; maid on ne hait que a maniere de flatter.]

In infants, levity is a prettiness; in men a shameful defect; but in old age, a monstrous folly.

Funeral pomp is more for the vanity of the living than for the honor of the dead.

The surest way to be deceived is to consider oneself cleverer than others.

Pride, which inspires us with so much envy, is sometimes of use toward the moderating of it too.

Moderation in people who are contented comes from that calm that good fortune lends to their spirit.

Second-rate minds usually condemn everything beyond their grasp.

Nothing ought in reason to mortify our self-satisfaction more that the considering that we condemn at one time what we highly approve and commend at another.

The older a fool is, the worse he is.

People are often vain of their passions, even of the worst, but envy is a passion so timid and shame-faced that no one ever dare avow her.

Boredom ... causes us to neglect more duties than does interest.

There are more defects in temperament than in the mind.

We should scarcely desire things ardently if we were perfectly acquainted with what we desire.

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.

Happiness is in the taste, and not in the things themselves; we are happy from possessing what we like, not from possessing what others like.

Even women are perfect at the outset.

Not to love is in love an infallible means of being loved.

Good taste comes more from the judgment than from the mind.

The mind is always the patsy of the heart.

In the intercourse of life, we please more by our faults than by our good qualities.

The best way to rise in society is to use all possible means of persuading people that one has already risen in society.

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

He who imagines he can do without the world deceives himself much; but he who fancies the world cannot do without him is still more mistaken.

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

Nothing is so catching as example.

To be a great man it is necessary to turn to account all opportunities.

We like to read others but we do not like to be read.

We think very few people sensible, except those who are of our opinion.

A gentleman may love like a lunatic, but not like a beast.

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

Before strongly desiring anything, we should look carefully into the happiness of its present owner.

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

Death, like the sun, cannot be looked at steadily.

There are some faults which, when well managed, make a greater figure than virtue itself.

The great interests of man: air and light, the joy of having a body, the voluptuousness of looking.

Nothing is rarer than true good nature; they who are reputed to have it are generally only pliant or weak.

None but great men are capable of having great flaws.

Love is to the soul of him who loves, what the soul is to the body which it animates.

Moderation resembles temperance. We are not so unwilling to eat more, as afraid of doing ourselves harm by it.