Top 1115 Quotes & Sayings by Francois de La Rochefoucauld - Page 15

One kind of happiness is to know exactly at what point to be miserable.

Consolation for unhappiness can often be found in a certain satisfaction we get from looking unhappy.

Without humility, we keep all our defects; and they are only crusted over by pride, which conceals them from others, and often from ourselves.

We are eager to believe that others are flawed because we are eager to believe in what we wish for.

A woman often thinks she regrets the lover, when she only regrets the love.

The applause we give those who are new to society often proceeds from a secret envying of those already established.

We confess to little faults only to persuade ourselves we have no great ones.

Happiness does not consist in things themselves but in the relish we have of them.

There are two things which Man cannot look at directly without flinching: the sun and death.

The only real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes. The glory of great men should always be measured by the means they have used to acpuire it.

If it were not for poetry, few men would ever fall in love.

We are always bored by the very people by whom it is vital not to be bored.

Preserving the serious health condition is usually painful.

One may outwit another, but not all the others.

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

In friendship, as in love, we are often more happy from the things we are ignorant of than from those we are acquainted with.

It is a mistake to imagine, that the violent passions only, such as ambition and love, can triumph over the rest. Idleness, languid as it is, often masters them all; she influences all our designs and actions, and insensibly consumes and destroys both passions and virtues.

The fame of great men ought to be judged always by their big, fancy names.

We forgive just so long as we love.

We are never so generous as when giving advice.

There are few people more convinced of their own genius than those who complain of how stupid they are.

We are almost always bored by just those whom we must not find boring.

We exaggerate the glory of some men in order to detract from that of others.

A man is ridiculous less through the characteristics he has than through those he affects to have.

Some disguised deceits counterfeit truth so perfectly that not to be taken in by them would be an error of judgment.

We frequently are troublesome to others, when we think it impossible for us ever to be so.

We should not be upset that others hide the truth from us, when we hide it so often from ourselves.

Our hopes, often though they deceive us, lead us pleasantly along the path of life.

It is not always for virtue's sake that women are virtuous.

Passion often makes fools of the wisest men and gives the silliest wisdom.

A man may be sharper than another, but not than all others.

He who refuses praise the first time that it is offered does so because he would hear it a second time.

A man often believes himself leader when he is led; as his mind endeavors to reach one goal, his heart insensibly drags him towards another.

Loyalty is in most people only a ruse used by self-interest to attract confidence.

Humility is often only a feigned submissiveness by which men hope to bring other people to submit to them; it is a more calculated sort of pride.

There are some people who would never have fallen in love if they had not heard there was such a thing.

Men have written in the most convincing manner to prove that death is no evil, and this opinion has been confirmed on a thousand celebrated occasions by the weakest of men as well as by heroes. Even so I doubt whether any sensible person has ever believed it, and the trouble men take to convince others as well as themselves that they do shows clearly that it is no easy undertaking.

There are few people who would not be ashamed of being loved when they love no longer.

Our enemies come nearer the truth in the opinions they form of us than we do in our opinion of ourselves.

We own up to minor failings, but only so as to convince others that we have no major ones.

There are few things we should keenly desire if we really knew what we wanted.

Extreme boredom provides its own antidote.

In the human heart one generation of passions follows another; from the ashes of one springs the spark of the next.

A man seldom finds people unthankful, as long as he remains in a condition of benefiting them further.

It is safer to do most men harm than to do them too much good.

Commonplace minds usually condemn what is beyond the reach of their understanding.

Plenty of people want to be pious, but no one yearns to be humble.

The more we love, the nearer we are to hate.

Listening well and answering well is one of the greatest perfections that can be obtained in conversation.

Virtue is to the soul what health is tot he body.

Second-rate minds usually condemn everything beyond their grasp.

We make promises to the extent that we hope-and keep them to the extent that we fear.

There are many predicaments in life that one must be a bit crazy to escape from.

If you cannot find peace in yourself, it is useless to look for it elsewhere.

Of all our faults, the one that we excuse most easily is idleness.

It is easier to fall in love when you are out of it than to get out of it when you are in.

Those who most obstinately oppose the most widely-held opinions more often do so because of pride than lack of intelligence. They find the best places in the right set already taken, and they do not want back seats.

Absence abates a moderate passion and intensifies a great one - as the wind blows out a candle but fans fire into flame.

Neither the sun nor death can be looked at steadily.

Imagination could never invent the number of different contradictions that exist innately in each person's heart.