Francois De La Rochefoucauld Quotes

Women do not know all their powers of flirtation.

We sometimes imagine we hate flattery, but we only hate the way we are flattered.

Those who are overreached by our cunning are far from appearing to us as ridiculous as we appear to ourselves when the cunning of others has overreached us.

To awaken a man who is deceived as to his own merit is to do him as bad a turn as that done to the Athenian madman who was happy in believing that all the ships touching at the port belonged to him.

We are never so easily deceived as when we imagine we are deceiving others.

Weakness is more opposed to virtue than is vice.

Only the great can afford to have great defects.

Politeness of the mind is to have delicate thoughts

Perfect valour consists in doing without witnesses that which we would be capable of doing before everyone.

Το know how to profit by good advice, requires nearly as much ability as to know how to act for one'self.

Weakness is the only fault that is incorrigible.

The height of ability consists in a thorough knowledge of the real value of things, and of the genius of the age in which we live.

The greatest miracle of love is the cure of coquetry.

A small degree of wit, accompanied by good sense, is less tiresome in the long run than a great amount of wit without it.

To praise great actions is in some sense to share them.

What is called liberality is often merely the vanity of giving.

Ridicule dishonours more than dishonour.

A great many men's gratitude is nothing but a secret desire to hook in more valuable kindnesses hereafter.

There are certain defects which, well-mounted, glitter like virtue itself.

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

There are crimes which become innocent and even glorious through their splendor, number and excess.

We always get bored with those whom we bore.

Being a blockhead is sometimes the best security against being cheated by a man of wit.

Great and glorious events which dazzle the beholder are represented by politicians as the outcome of grand designs whereas they are usually products of temperaments and passions.

It seems that nature, which has so wisely disposed our bodily organs with a view to our happiness, has also bestowed on us pride, to spare us the pain of being aware of our imperfections.

However much we may distrust men's sincerity, we always believe they speak to us more sincerely than to others.

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

In great affairs we ought to apply ourselves less to creating chances than to profiting from those that offer.

Smallness of mind is the cause of stubbornness, and we do not credit readily what is beyond our view.

We get so much in the habit of wearing disguises before others that we finally appear disguised before ourselves.

Madmen and fools see everything through the medium of humor.

We are all strong enough to bear other men's misfortunes.

We are nearer loving those who hate us than those who love us more than we wish.

Those who are incapable of committing great crimes do not readily suspect them in others.

The happiness and misery of men depend no less on temper than fortune.

Only the contemptible fear contempt.

Esteem never makes ingrates.

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.

Our minds are as much given to laziness as our bodies.

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.

The defects of the mind, like those of the face, grow worse with age.

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.

We love much better those who endeavor to imitate us, than those who strive to equal us. For imitation is a sign of esteem, but competition of envy.

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.

Preserving health by too severe a rule is a worrisome malady.

It is most difficult to speak when we are ashamed of being silent.

The pleasure of love is in loving; we are happier in the passion we feel than in what we inspire.

We sometimes condemn the present, by praising the past; and show our contempt of what is now, by our esteem for what is no more.

The principal point of cleverness is to know how to value things just as they deserve.

It is not enough to have great qualities; We should also have the management of them.