Francois De La Rochefoucauld Quotes

“The sure mark of one born with noble qualities is being born without envy.”

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

“Passion makes idiots of the cleverest men, and makes the biggest idiots clever.”

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

He who lives without folly isn't so wise as he thinks.

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

“How can we expect another to keep our secret if we have been unable to keep it ourselves?”

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

“Though nature be ever so generous, yet can she not make a hero alone. Fortune must contribute her part too; and till both concur, the work cannot be perfected.”

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

The only thing that should surprise us is that there are still some things that can surprise us.

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

Pride does not wish to owe and vanity does not wish to pay.

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

“As one grows older, one becomes wiser and more foolish.”

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

“We are so used to dissembling with others that in time we come to deceive and dissemble with ourselves.”

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

“If we are incapable of finding peace in ourselves, it is pointless to search elsewhere.”

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

“The only thing constant in life is change”

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

“Hope is the last thing that dies in man; and though it be exceedingly deceitful, yet it is of this good use to us, that while we are traveling through life it conducts us in an easier and more pleasant way to our journey's end.”

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

“A certain harmony should be kept between actions and ideas if we want to fully develop the effects they can produce.”

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

“He who imagines he can do without the world deceives himself much; but he who fancies the world cannot do without him is still more mistaken.”

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

“Great and glorious events which dazzle the beholder are represented by politicians as the outcome of grand designs whereas they are usually products of temperaments and passions.”

— 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.”

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

There is great skill in knowing how to conceal one's skill.

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

“Nothing should lessen our satisfaction with ourselves as much as when we notice that we disapprove of something at one time that we approve of at another time.”

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

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

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

It is as easy to deceive one's self without perceiving it, as it is difficult to deceive others without their finding out.

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

“In growing old, we become more foolish - and more wise.”

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

A man, in order to establish himself in the world, does everything he can to appear established there.

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

“One thing which makes us find so few people who appear reasonable and agreeable in conversation is, that there is scarcely any one who does not think more of what he is about to say than of answering precisely what is said to him.”

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

Our distrust justifies the deceit of others.

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

“Propriety is the least of all laws, and the most observed.”

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

“There are some bad qualities which make great talents.”

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

We are lazier in our minds than in our bodies.

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

“Silence is the best tactic for he who distrusts himself.”

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

“Few know how to be old.”

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

“There are more defects in temperament than in the mind.”

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

“Sometimes we lose friends for whose loss our regret is greater than our grief, and others for whom our grief is greater than our regret.”

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

“A man of understanding finds less difficulty in submitting to a wrong-headed fellow, than in attempting to set him right.”

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

“Narrow minds think nothing right that is above their own capacity.”

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

“Before strongly desiring anything, we should look carefully into the happiness of its present owner.”

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

What makes false reckoning, as regards gratitude, is that the pride of the giver and the receiver cannot agree as to the value of the benefit.

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

“Avarice is more opposite to economy than liberality.”

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

In love the deceit generally outstrips the distrust.

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

“Gravity is a mysterious carriage of the body invented to cover the defects of the mind.”

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

“The qualities we have do not make us so ridiculous as those which we affect to have.
[Fr., On n'est jamais si ridicule par les qualites que l'on a que par celles que l'on affecte d'avoir.]”

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

“Happiness does not consist in things themselves but in the relish we have of them; and a man has attained it when he enjoys what he loves and desires himself, and not what other people think lovely and desirable.”

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

“Truth has scarce done so much good in the world as the false appearances of it have done hurt.”

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

It is necessary, in order to know things well, to know the particulars of them; and these, being infinite, make our knowledge eversuperficial and imperfect.

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

“Some follies are caught, like contagious diseases.”

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

“We do not like to praise, and seldom praise anyone without self-interest.”

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

“The heart of man ever finds a constant succession of passions, so that the destroying and pulling down of one proves generally tobe nothing else but the production and the setting up of another.”

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

“We are much mistaken if we think that men are always brave from a principle of valor, or women chaste from a principle of modesty.”

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

“The man whom no one pleases is much more unhappy than the man who pleases no one.”

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

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.

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

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

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

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

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld