La Rochefoucauld Quotes
In order to succeed in the world people do their upmost to appear successful.
We are almost always wearied in the company of persons with whom we are not permitted to be weary.
The constancy of the wise is only the art of keeping disquietude to one's self.
Almost everyone takes pleasure in repaying trifling obligations, very many feel gratitude for those that are moderate; but there is scarcely anyone who is not ungrateful for those that are weighty.
All our qualities, whether good or bad, are unstable and ambiguous, and almost all are at the mery of chance.
To understand matters rightly we should understand their details; and as that knowledge is almost infinite, our knowledge is always superficial and imperfect.
Everyone takes pleasure in returning small obligations, many people acknowledge moderate ones; but there are only a scarce few who do not pay great ones with ingratitude.
Ideas often flash across our minds more complete than we could make them after much labor.
There is such a thing as a general revolution which changes the taste of men as it changes the fortunes of the world.
The greatest of all gifts is the power to estimate things at their true worth
It is with certain good qualities as with the senses; those who have them not can neither appreciate nor comprehend them in others.
A man, in order to establish himself in the world, does everything he can to appear established there.
The greatest part of our faults are more excusable than the methods that are commonly taken to conceal them.
Eloquence resides as much in the tone of voice, in the eyes, and in the expression of the face, as in the choice of words.
There are people who would never have been in love, had they never heard love spoken of.
A person well satisfied with themselves is seldom satisfied with others, and others, rarely are with them.
We acknowledge our faults in order to repair by our sincerity the damage they have done us in the eyes of others.
There is scarcely any man sufficiently clever to appreciate all the evil he does.
Moderation is like sobriety: you would like to have some more, but are afraid of making yourself ill.
Gratitude is like the good faith of traders: it maintains commerce, and we often pay, not because it is just to discharge our debts, but that we may more readily find people to trust us.
There are few occasions when we should make a bad bargain by giving up the good on condition that no ill was said of us.
It is worth nothing to be young without being beautiful, nor to be beautiful without being young.
Not all who discharge their debts of gratitude should flatter themselves that they are grateful.
Youth changes its tastes by the warmth of its blood; age retains its tastes by habit.
Gravity is a mysterious carriage of the body invented to cover the defects of the mind.
He is a truly virtuous man who wishes always to be open to the observation of honest men.
Sometimes there is equal or more ability in knowing how to use good advice than there is in giving it.
It is more difficult for a man to be faithful to his mistress when he is favored than when he is ill treated by her.
What men call friendship is no more than a partnership, a mutual care of interests, an exchange of favors - in a word, it is a sort of traffic, in which self-love ever proposes to be the gainer.
We often are consoled by our want of reason for misfortunes that reason could not have comforted.
Women find it far more difficult to overcome their inclination to coquetry than to overcome their love.
It is easier for a man to be thought fit for an employment that he has not, than for one he stands already possessed of, and is exercising.
The rust of business is sometimes polished off in a camp; but never in a court.