A Quote by Francois de La Rochefoucauld

Nature seems at each man's birth to have marked out the bounds of his virtues and vices, and to have determined how good or how wicked that man shall be capable of being.

Francois de La Rochefoucauld

Quote Topics

Being Birth Bounds Capable Determined Each Good His How Man Marked Nature Out Seems Shall Vices Virtues Wicked

Quote Author

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

Man seems to be capable of great virtues but not of small virtues; capable of defying his torturer but not of keeping his temper.

Gilbert K. Chesterton

If a man has no vices, he is in great danger of making vices about his virtues, and there's a spectacle.

Thornton Wilder

Who is righteous? Anyone who is repenting. No matter how bad he has been, if he is repenting he is a righteous man. There is hope for him. And no matter how good he has been all his life, if he is not repenting, he is a wicked man. The difference is which way you are facing. The man on the top of the stairs facing down if much worse off than the man on the bottom step who is facing up. The direction we are facing, that is repentance; and that is what determines whether we are good or bad.

Hugh Nibley

Culture as art is the peak expression of man's creativity, his capacity to break out of nature's narrow bounds, and hence out of the degrading interpretation of man in modern natural and political science.

Allan Bloom

All too often we say of a man doing a good job that he is indispensable. A flattering canard, as so many disillusioned and retired and fired have discovered when the world seems to keep on turning without them. In business, a man can come nearest to indispensability by being dispensable in his current job. How can a man move up to new responsibilities if he is the only one able to handle his present tasks? It matters not how small or large the job you now have, if you have trained no one to do it as well, you're not available; you've made your promotion difficult if not impossible.

Malcolm Forbes

No distinction is 'tween man and man, But as his virtues add to him a glory Or vices cloud him.

William Habington

Man is neither by birth nor disposition a savage, nor of unsocial habits, but only becomes so by indulging in vices contrary to his nature.

Plutarch

A return to first principles in a republic is sometimes caused by the simple virtues of one man. His good example has such an influence that the good men strive to imitate him, and the wicked are ashamed to lead a life so contrary to his example.

Niccolo Machiavelli

The weak-minded man is the slave of his vices and the dupe of his virtues.

Jean Antoine Petit-Senn

Party spirit enlists a man's virtues in the cause of his vices.

Richard Whately

Man has been called a rational being, but rationality is a matter of choice-and the alternative his nature offers him is: rational being or suicidal animal. Man has to be man-by choice; he has to hold his life as a value-by choice; he has to learn to sustain it-by choice; he has to discover the values it requires and practice his virtues-by choice. A code of values accepted by choice is a code of morality.

John Galt

Just for a few tiny buds on your tongue you are killing live animals, with no sensitivity, with no awareness, with no love. It seems impossible; how can a man who has known love be capable of doing such things? A man who loves his wife, who loves his children goes on eating meat? Impossible.

Rajneesh

How shall a man escape from that which is written; How shall he flee from his destiny?

Ferdowsi

To each man at his birth nature has given some fault.

Propertius

How shall not man, whose nature stands bound up with forces vast, innate with strength, reveal his life In mould of holiest cast. His law is action: gates of power stand open in his view; a restless soul, a holy zeal, shall give him entrance through.