Top 1115 Quotes & Sayings by Francois de La Rochefoucauld - Page 13

When we exaggerate our friends' tenderness towards us, it is often less from gratitude than from a desire to exhibit our own virtue.

Ideas often flash across our minds more complete than we could make them after much labor.

Things often offer themselves to our mind in a more finished form in the very first thought, than we might have made them by muchart and study.

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

The person giving the advice returns the confidence placed in him with a disinterested eagerness... and he is usually guided only by his own interest or reputation.

Of all our faults, the one we avow most easily is idleness; we persuade ourselves that it is allied to all the peaceable virtues,and as for the others, that it does not destroy them utterly, but only suspends the exercise of their functions.

A clever man should handle his interests so that each will fall in suitable order of their value.

There are some who never would have loved if they never had heard it spoken of.

The gratitude of most men is but a secret desire of receiving greater benefits.

Some people are like popular songs that you only sing for a short time.

Women do not know all their powers of flirtation.

He who lives without committing any folly is not so wise as he thinks. [Fr., Qui vit sans folie n'est pas si sage qu'il croit.]

When our vices desert us, we flatter ourselves that we are deserting our vices.

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

There are two sorts of constancy in love one arises from continually discovering in the loved person new subjects for love, the other arises from our making a merit of being constant.

It is as easy to unknowingly deceive yourself as it is to deceive others.

We often bore others when we think we cannot possibly bore them.

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

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

Humility is often only feigned submission which people use to render others submissive. It is a subterfuge of pride which lowers itself in order to rise.

The intention of never deceiving often exposes us to deception.

Our actions are like the terminations of verses, which we rhyme as we please.

The smallest fault of women who give themselves up to love is to love.

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.]

The health of the soul is something we can be no more sure of than that of the body; and though a man may seem far from the passions, yet he is in as much danger of falling into them as one in a perfect state of health of having a fit of sickness.

History never embraces more than a small part of reality

The extreme delight we experience in talking about ourselves should warn us that those who listen do not share it.

It appears that nature has hid at the bottom of our hearts talents and abilities unknown to us. It is only the passions that have the power of bringing them to light, and sometimes give us views more true and more perfect than art could possibly do.

What makes us so often discontented with those who transact business for us is that they almost always abandon the interest of their friends for the interest of the business, because they wish to have the honor of succeeding in that which they have undertaken.

On why I don't trust democracy without extremely powerful systems of accountability and recall What seems to be generosity is often only disguised ambition - which despises small interests to gain great ones.

There are people who in spite of their merit disgust us and others who please us in spite of their faults.

Imagination does not enable us to invent as many different contradictions as there are by nature in every heart.

Weakness is the only fault that is incorrigible.

Behind many acts that are thought ridiculous there lie wise and weighty motives.

Pity is often a reflection of our own evils in the ills of others. It is a delicate foresight of the troubles into which we may fall.

People would never fall in love if they hadn't heard love talked about.

To boast that one never flirts is actually a kind of flirtation.

We have more ability than will power, and it is often an excuse to ourselves that we imagine that things are impossible.

One can no more look steadily at death than at the sun.

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

The common foible of women who have been handsome is to forget that they are no longer so.

When love becomes labored we welcome an act of infidelity towards ourselves to free us from fidelity.

Old people are fond of giving good advice; it consoles them for no longer being capable of setting a bad example.

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.

There are more defects in temperament than in the mind.

There are some good marriages, but practically no delightful ones.

No matter how brilliant an action, it should not be considered great unless it was the result of a great motive.

Weakness is more opposed to virtue than is vice.

What makes vanity so insufferable to us, is that it hurts our own.

It is not always from valor or from chastity that men are brave, and women chaste.

Self-love is the greatest of all flatterers.

Avarice misapprehends itself almost always. There is no passion which more often will miss its aim, nor upon which the present has so much influence to the prejudice of the future.

Renewed friendships require more care than those that have never been broken.

Some allow themselves to be overcome by panic, and others charge because they dare not remain at their posts. Some may be found whose courage is strengthened by small perils that prepare them to face greater dangers. Some are daring when facing swords but dread facing bullets; others dread bullets little but fear facing swords a lot.

What makes lovers never tire of one another is that they talk always about themselves.

Love of glory, fear of shame, greed for fortune, the desire to make life agreeable and comfortable, and the wish to depreciate others - all of these are often the causes of the bravery that is spoken so highly of by men.

There are few good women who do not tire of their role.

We label judges with having the meanest motives, and yet we desire that our reputation and fame should depend upon the judgment of men, who are all, either from their jealousy or preoccupation or want of intelligence, opposed to us - and yet despite their bias, just for the sake of making these men decide in our favor, we peril in so many ways both our peace and our life.

It requires greater virtues to support good fortune than bad.

You are never so easily fooled as when trying to fool someone else.