Francois De La Rochefoucauld Quotes
Before we set our hearts too much upon anything, let us examine how happy they are, who already possess it.
If we have not peace within ourselves, it is in vain to seek it from outward sources.
The generality of virtuous women are like hidden treasures, they are safe only because nobody has sought after them.
Love can no more continue without a constant motion than fire can; and when once you take hope and fear away, you take from it its very life and being.
Politeness is a desire to be treated politely, and to be esteemed polite oneself.
It is from a weakness and smallness of mind that men are opinionated; and we are very loath to believe what we are not able to comprehend.
We would frequently be ashamed of our good deeds if people saw all of the motives that produced them.
There is no disguise which can hide love for long where it exists, or simulate it where it does not.
Perfect Valor is to do, without a witness, all that we could do before the whole world.
We are more often treacherous through weakness than through calculation.
We always love those who admire us, but we do not always love those whom we admire.
Gallantry of mind consists in saying flattering things in an agreeable manner.
It is with true love as it is with ghosts; everyone talks about it, but few have seen it.
Folly pursues us at all periods of our lives. If someone seems wise it is only because his follies are proportionate to his age and fortune.
We have no patience with other people's vanity because it is offensive to our own.
What makes lovers never tire of one another is that they talk always about themselves.
Why is it that our memory is good enough to retain the least triviality that happens to us, and yet not good enough to recollect how often we have told it to the same person?
A man's happiness or unhappiness depends as much on his temperament as on his destiny.
If we are to judge of love by its consequences, it more nearly resembles hatred than friendship.
How can we expect another to keep our secret if we have been unable to keep it ourselves?
I always say to myself, what is the most important thing we can think about at this extraordinary moment.
Jealousy is the greatest of all evils, and the one that arouses the least pity in the person who causes it.
Men frequently do good only to give themselves opportunity of doing ill with impunity.
Philosophy triumphs easily over past evils and future evils, but present evils triumph over it.
We seldom find people ungrateful so long as it is thought we can serve them.
The man that thinks he loves his mistress for her own sake is mightily mistaken.
In friendship as well as love, ignorance very often contributes more to our happiness than knowledge.
The world more often rewards the appearances of merit than merit itself.
True eloquence consists in saying all that should be said, and that only.
None deserve praise for being good who have not the spirit to be bad: goodness, for the most part, is nothing but indolence or weakness of will.
If a man doesn't find ease in himself, 'tis in vain to seek it elsewhere.
Flattery is a counterfeit money which, but for vanity, would have no circulation.
