Famous La Rochefoucauld Quotations

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"The art of using moderate abilities to advantage wins praise, and often acquires more reputation than actual brilliancy."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"Not all those who know their minds know their hearts as well."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"What seems to be generosity is often no more than disguised ambition, which overlooks a small interest in order to secure a great one."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"We would frequently be ashamed of our good deeds if people saw all of the motives that produced them."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"A true friend is the greatest of all blessings, and that which we take the least care of all to acquire."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"Pride does not wish to owe and vanity does not wish to pay."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"Confidence contributes more to conversation than wit."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"Few things are impracticable in themselves; and it is for want of application, rather than of means, that men fail to succeed."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"A refusal of praise is a desire to be praised twice."
by Francois de la Rochefoucauld
"The happiness and misery of men depend no less on temper than fortune."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"The only thing that should surprise us is that there are still some things that can surprise us."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"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."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"The sure way to be cheated is to think one's self more cunning than others."
by Francois de la Rochefoucauld
"The sure mark of one born with noble qualities is being born without envy."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"There are crimes which become innocent and even glorious through their splendor, number and excess."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"There are few virtuous women who are not bored with their trade."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"Timidity is a fault for which it is dangerous to reprove persons whom we wish to correct of it."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"Those who occupy their minds with small matters, generally become incapable of greatness."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"To know how to hide one's ability is great skill."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"We are so accustomed to disguise ourselves to others that in the end we become disguised to ourselves."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"Usually we praise only to be praised."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"We only confess our little faults to persuade people that we have no big ones."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"We seldom find any person of good sense, except those who share our opinions."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"When we disclaim praise, it is only showing our desire to be praised a second time."
by Francois de la Rochefoucauld
"As one grows older, one becomes wiser and more foolish."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"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."
by Francois de la Rochefoucauld
"If we had no faults of our own, we should not take so much pleasure in noticing those in others."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"If it were not for the company of fools, a witty man would often be greatly at a loss."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"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."
by Francois de la Rochefoucauld
"It's the height of folly to want to be the only wise one."
by Francois de la Rochefoucauld
"Most of our faults are more pardonable than the means we use to conceal them."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"No persons are more frequently wrong, than those who will not admit they are wrong."
by Francois de la Rochefoucauld
"Nothing prevents one from appearing natural as the desire to appear natural."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"Perfect Valor is to do, without a witness, all that we could do before the whole world."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"Perfect courage is to do without witnesses what one would be capable of doing with the world looking on."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"Taste may change, but inclination never."
by Francois de la Rochefoucauld
"Quarrels would not last long if the fault were only on one side."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"The accent of one's birthplace remains in the mind and in the heart as in one's speech."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"Jealousy is bred in doubts. When those doubts change into certainties, then the passion either ceases or turns absolute madness."
by Francois de la Rochefoucauld
"Jealousy contains more of self-love than of love."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"Jealously is always born with love but it does not die with it."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"It is great folly to wish to be wise all alone."
by Francois de la Rochefoucauld
"Courage is like love it must have hope for nourishment."
by La Rochefoucauld
"Conceit causes more conversation than wit."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"Ah, Hope what would life be, stripped of thy encouraging smiles, that teach us to look behind the dark clouds of to-day, for the golden beams that are to gild the morrow."
by La Rochefoucauld
"The reason that lovers never weary each other is because they are always talking about themselves."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"Perfect valour consists in doing without witnesses that which we would be capable of doing before everyone."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"When we are in love we often doubt that which we most believe."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"Gratitude is merely the secret hope of further favors."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"It's no good trying to keep up old friendships. It's painful for both sides. The fact is, one grows out of people, and the only thing is to face it."
by La Rochefoucauld
"However rare true love may be, it is less so than true friendship."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"Before we set our hearts too much on anything, let us examine how happy are those who already possess it."
by La Rochefoucauld
"We are never so ridiculous through what we are as through what we pretend to be."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"Never give anyone the advice to buy or sell shares, because the most benevolent price of advice can turn out badly."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"The mind cannot long play the heart's role."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"On neither the sun, nor death, can a man look fixedly."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"Nothing so much prevents our being natural as the desire to seem so."
by La Rochefoucauld
"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."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"Every one speaks well of his own heart, but no one dares speak well of his own mind."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"Our enemies come nearer the truth in the opinions they form of us than we do in our opinion of ourselves."
by La Rochefoucauld
"A work can become modern only if it is first postmodern. Postmodernism thus understood is not modernism at its end but in the nascent state, and this state is constant."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"A fashionable woman is always in love - with herself."
by La Rochefoucauld
"A great many men's gratitude is nothing but a secret desire to hook in more valuable kindnesses hereafter."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"A man is sometimes as different from himself as he is from others."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"A man convinced of his own merit will accept misfortune as an honor, for thus can he persuade others, as well as himself, that he is a worthy target for the arrows of fate."
by La Rochefoucauld
"A man's worth has its season, like fruit."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"A true friend is the most precious of all possessions and the one we take the least thought about acquiring."
by La Rochefoucauld
"A true friend is the greatest of all blessings, and the one which we take the least thought to acquire."
by La Rochefoucauld
"Absence extinguishes small passions and increases great ones, as the wind blows out a candle, and blows in a fire."
by De La Rochefoucauld.
"Absence diminishes small loves and increases great ones, as the wind blows out the candle and blow up the bonfire."
by La Rochefoucauld
"Absence abates a moderate passion and intensifies a great one- as the wind blows out a candle but fans fire into flame. (Maxims)"
by La Rochefoucauld
"A wise man thinks it more advantageous not to join the battle than to win."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"Absence lessens the minor passions and increases the great ones, as the wind douses a candle and kindles a fire."
by La Rochefoucauld
"All the passions make us commit faults; love makes us commit the most ridiculous ones."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"All the passions make us commit faults love makes us commit the most ridiculous ones."
by La Rochefoucauld
"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."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"Being a blockhead is sometimes the best security against being cheated by a man of wit."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"Before we set our hearts too much upon anything, let us examine how happy those are who already possess it."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"Before we set our hearts too much upon anything, let us examine how happy they are, who already possess it."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"Constancy in love is a perpetual inconstancy, in which the heart attaches itself successively to each of the lover's qualities, giving preference now to one, now to another."
by La Rochefoucauld
"Decency is the least of all laws, but yet it is the law which is most strictly observed."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"Everyone complains of his memory, none of his judgment."
by La Rochefoucauld
"Everyone complains of his memory, and nobody complains of his judgment."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"Everyone complains of his lack of memory, but nobody of his want of judgment."
by La Rochefoucauld
"Few are agreeable in conversation, because each thinks of what he intends to say than of what others are saying, and listens no more when he himself has a chance to speak."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"Flattery is a kind of bad money, to which our vanity gives us currency."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"Few people have the wisdom to prefer the criticism that would do them good, to the praise that deceives them."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"For most men the love of justice is only the fear of suffering injustice."
by La Rochefoucauld
"Fortune converts everything to the advantage of her favorites."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"Funeral pomp is more for the vanity of the living than for the honor of the dead."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"Gracefulness is to the body what understanding is to the mind."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"Great souls are not those who have fewer passions and more virtues than others, but only those who have greater designs."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"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."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"He who lives without folly isn't so wise as he thinks."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"He who lives without folly is not so wise as he imagines."
by Francois De La Rochefoucauld
"Heat of blood makes young people change their inclinations often, and habit makes old ones keep to theirs a great while."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"How can we expect another to keep our secret, if we cannot keep it ourself"
by La Rochefoucauld
"How can we expect another to keep our secret if we have been unable to keep it ourselves?"
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"Hope, deceiving as it is, serves at least to lead us to the end of our lives by an agreeable route."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"Hope and fear are inseparable. There is no hope without fear, nor any fear without hope."
by La Rochefoucauld


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