La Rochefoucauld Quotes

Every one complains of a poor memory, no one of a weak judgment.

There are some people upon whom their very faults and failings sit gracefully; and there are others whose very excellencies and accomplishments do not become them.

Avarice is more directly opposed to thrift than generosity is.

Luxury and excessive refinement are sure forerunners of the decadence of states, because when all individuals seek their own interests they neglect the public weal.

Few things are impossible in themselves: application to make them succeed fails us more often than the means.

Second-rate minds usually condemn everything beyond their grasp.

We should often feel ashamed of our best actions if the world could see all the motives which produced them.

It takes more strength of character to withstand good fortune than bad.

Minds of moderate caliber ordinarily condemn everthing which is beyond their range.

It is often hard to determine whether a clear, open, and honorable proceeding is the result of goodness or of cunning.

We easily forget our faults when no one knows them but ourselves.

A man cannot please long who has only one kind of wit.

No man can love a second time the person whom he has once truly ceased to love.

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

One should treat one's fate as one does one's health; enjoy it when it is good, be patient with it when it is poor, and never attempt any drastic cure save as an ultimate resort.

Friendship is insipid to those who have experienced love.

The trust that we put in ourselves makes us feel trust in others.

It is not expedient or wise to examine our friends too closely; few persons are raised in our esteem by a close examination.

If one judges love by the majority of its effects, it is more like hatred than like friendship.

True bravery means doing alone that which one could do if all the world were by.

The soul's maladies have their relapses like the body's. What we take for a cure is often just a momentary rally or a new form of the disease.

We judge so superficially of things, that common words and actions spoke and done in an agreeable manner, with some knowledge of what passes in the world, often succeed beyond the greatest ability.

If we took as much pains to be what we ought, as we do to deceive others by disguising what we are; we might appear as we are, without being at the trouble of any disguise.

Hope, deceitful as it is, carries us through life agreeably enough.

The heat of youth is not more opposed to safety than the coldness of age.

The surest way to be deceived is to consider oneself cleverer than others.

Sometimes there are accidents in our lives the skillful extrication from which demands a little folly.

Innocence is lucky if it finds the same protection as guilt

A true friend is the most precious of all possessions and the one we take the least thought about acquiring.

There are no events so disastrous that adroit men do not draw some advantage from them, nor any so fortunate that the imprudent cannot turn to their own prejudice.

The praise we give to new comers into the world arises from the envy we bear to those who are established.

In love, the quickest is always the best cure.

A good woman is a hidden treasure; who discovers her will do well not to boast about it.

We sometimes think that we hate flattery, but we only hate the manner in which it is done. [Fr., On croit quelquefoir hair la flatterie; maid on ne hait que a maniere de flatter.]

Funeral pomp is more for the vanity of the living than for the honor of the dead.

Magnanimity is sufficiently defined by its name, nevertheless one can say it is the good sense of pride, the most noble way of receiving praise.

Death and the sun are not to be looked at steadily.

Few know how to be old.

People are often vain of their passions, even of the worst, but envy is a passion so timid and shame-faced that no one ever dare avow her.

The most sure method of subjecting yourself to be deceived is to consider yourself more cunning than others.

We should often blush at our noblest deeds if the world were to see all their underlying motives.

In infants, levity is a prettiness; in men a shameful defect; but in old age, a monstrous folly.

Hope and fear are inseparable. There is no hope without fear, nor any fear without hope.

Civility is a desire to receive civilities, and to be accounted well-bred.

Moderation in people who are contented comes from that calm that good fortune lends to their spirit.

Most men expose themselves in battle enough to save their honor, few wish to do so more than sufficiently, or than is necessary to make the design for which they expose themselves succeed.

Extreme boredom provides its own antidote.

There are more defects in temperament than in the mind.

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

We should scarcely desire things ardently if we were perfectly acquainted with what we desire.