A Quote by Francois de La Rochefoucauld

Nothing ought more to humiliate men who have merited great praise than the care they still take to boast of little things.

Francois de La Rochefoucauld

Quote Topics

Boast Care Great Humiliate Little Little Thing Little Things Men More Nothing Ought Praise Still Take Than Things

Quote Author

Francois de La Rochefoucauld
French - Writer
September 15, 1613 - March 17, 1680

You humiliate a rich person and they're still rich. You humiliate a brilliant person and they're still smart. A person who is well connected is still the king of England. But if you humiliate a young person, you take away the only form of power they have.

Chuck Palahniuk

It is more or less rude to scorn indiscriminately all kinds of praise; we ought to be proud of that which comes from honest men, who praise sincerely those things in us which are really commendable.

Jean de la Bruyere

It ought to be remembered that there is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things. Because the innovator has for enemies all those who have done well under the old conditions, and lukewarm defenders in those who may do well under the new. This coolness arises partly from fear of the opponents, who have the laws on their side, and partly from the incredulity of men, who do not readily believe in new things until they have had a long experience of them.

Niccolo Machiavelli

Do not talk about giftedness, inborn talents! One can assume great men of all kinds who were very little gifted. They acquired greatness, became “geniuses” (as we put it), through qualities the lack of which no one who knew what they were would boast of: they all possessed that seriousness of the efficient workman which first learns to construct the parts properly before it ventures to fashion a great whole; they allowed themselves time for it, because they took more pleasure in making the little, secondary things well than in the effect of a dazzling whole.

Friedrich Nietzsche

If you take care of the small things, the big things take care of themselves. You can gain more control over your life by paying closer attention to the little things.

Emily Dickinson

There are much more important things than a man going to the gym. Of course they have to take care of themselves on a certain level, but it's not essential. I think men do it more to impress other men.

Stephanie Sigman

Men may boast of their great actions; but they are more often the effects of chance than of design.

Francois de La Rochefoucauld

Conservative concepts believe in little government - take care of yourself, and that makes men who invent things like the constitution! Liberal thought has big government - we'll take care of you - and that creates boys and they create things like Occupy Wall Street! There's a difference between the way men and boys behave.

Brad Stine

. . .nothing is more important than freedom. Nothing is more sacred than freedom. Nothing is greater than freedom. Nothing. . .can be permitted to stand in the way of freedom. Freedom. . .is all that makes men great. It is all men have to live for. Without freedom, what good is life?

Allen Drury

An actor equals, sometimes, an entitled baby. People take care of things for me, and they pay greater attention to things than I was ever capable of doing. But in the last few years, I have learned a great deal more about taking care of things. I pay my own bills now.

Christian Slater

The use of great men is to serve the little men, to take care of the human race, and act as practical interpreters of justice and truth.

Theodore Parker

Let's take care of the little things while they're still little.

John G. Miller

It is very often nothing but our own vanity that deceives us. Women fancy admiration means more than it does. And men take care that they should.

Jane Austen

Nothing is more unworthy of a wise man, or ought to trouble him more, than to have allowed more time for trifling, and useless things, than they deserve.

Plato

Why, i' faith, methinks she's too low for a high praise, too brown for a fair praise and too little for a great praise: only this commendation I can afford her, that were she other than she is, she were unhandsome; and being no other but as she is, I do not like her. (Benedick, from Much Ado About Nothing)