La Rochefoucauld Quotes
Sometimes we think we dislike flattery, but it is only the way it is done that we dislike.
Tastes in young people are changed by natural impetuosity, and in the aged are preserved by habit.
It often happens that things come into the mind in a more finished form than could have been achieved after much study.
The mark of extraordinary merit is to see those most envious of it constrained to praise.
Moderation cannot have the credit of combatiug and subduing ambition, they are never found together. Moderation is the languor and indolence of the soul, as ambition is its activity and ardor.
Good and bad fortune are found severally to visit those who have the most of the one or the other.
The good or the bad fortune of men depends not less upon their own dispositions than upon fortune.
There is no praise we have not lavished upon prudence; and yet she cannot assure to us the most trifling event.
We often make use of envenomed praise, that reveals on the rebound, as it were, defects in those praised which we dare not exposeany other way.
A man's wits are better employed in bearing up under the misfortunes that lie upon him at present than in foreseeing those that may come upon him hereafter.
What we take for high-mindedness is very often no other than ambition well disguised, that scorns means interests, only to pursuegreater.
The most effectual way to be deceived is to believe oneself more cunning than one's neighbors.
A man is perhaps ungrateful, but often less chargeable with ingratitude than his benefactor is.
The daily employment of cunning marks a little mind, it generally happens that those who resort to it in one respect to protect themselves lay themselves open to attack in another.
There are few things we should keenly desire if we really knew what we wanted.
There are bad people who would be less dangerous if they were quite devoid of goodness.
We come altogether fresh and raw into the several stages of life, and often find ourselves without experience, despite our years.
However glorious an action in itself, it ought not to pass for great if it be not the effect of wisdom and intention.
It is almost always a fault of one who loves not to realize when he ceases to be loved.
The highest skill is the true judgment of values.
Deprived of the company of fools, a great wit does not seem half so clever.
However different men's fortunes may be, there is always something or other that balances the ill and the good, and makes all even at last.
The most trying fools are the bright ones.
The unbosoming oneself to another is a kind of release to the soul, which strives to lighten its burden and find ease by throwing off the weight that lay heavy upon it.
Young women that would not be thought coquettish, and old men that would not be ridiculous, should never talk of love, as if they had any concern in it.
Nothing is given so willingly as advice.
More things are left undone through neglect of duty than through neglect of self-interest.
Few things are needed to make a wise man happy; nothing can make a fool content; that is why most men are miserable.
The exceeding delight we take in talking about ourselves should give us cause to fear that we are giving but very little pleasureto our listeners.
Only strong natures can really be sweet ones; those that seem sweet are in general only weak, and may easily turn sour.
The pleasure of love is in the loving; and there is more joy in the passion one feels than in that which one inspires.
To establish ourselves in the world, we have to do all we can to appear established. To succeed in the world, we do everything we can to appear successful.
Those who give too much attention to trifling things become generally incapable of great ones.
We torment ourselves rather to make it appear that we are happy than to become so.
The truest comparison we can make of love is to liken it to a fever; we have no more power over the one than the other, either as to its violence or duration.
It is much better to learn to deal with the ills we have now than to speculate on those that may befall us.