La Rochefoucauld Quotes
Strength and weakness of mind are misnomers; they are really nothing but the good or bad health of our bodily organs.
Narrowness of mind is often the cause of obstinacy; we do not easily believe beyond what we see.
Men are inconsolable concerning the treachery of their friends or the deceptions of their enemies; and yet they are often very highly satisfied to be both deceived and betrayed by their own selves.
Considering how little the beginning or the ceasing to love is in our own power, it is foolish and unreasonable for the lover or his mistress to complain of one another's inconstancy.
A man is sometimes better off deceived about the one he loves, than undeceived.
If we judge love by most of its effects, it resembles rather hatred than affection.
The thing that makes our friendships so short and changeable is that the qualities and dispositions of the soul are very hard to know, and those of the understanding and wit very easy.
The art of using moderate abilities to advantage often brings greater results than actual brilliance
Men may boast of their great actions; but they are more often the effects of chance than of design.
We had better appear what we are, than affect to appear what we are not.
Passion often renders the most clever man a fool, and sometimes renders the most foolish man clever.
The moderation of fortunate people comes from the calm which good fortune gives to their tempers.
However much we may distrust men's sincerity, we always believe they speak to us more sincerely than to others.
However greatly we distrust the sincerity of those we converse with, yet still we think they tell more truth to us than to anyone else.
When we exaggerate our friends' tenderness towards us, it is often less from gratitude than from a desire to exhibit our own virtue.
We are never so easily deceived as when we imagine we are deceiving others.
The pleasure of love is in loving; we are happier in the passion we feel than in what we inspire.
Few things are impracticable in themselves; and it is for want of application, rather than of means, that men fail to succeed.
Old people are fond of giving good advice; it consoles them for no longer being capable of setting a bad example.
A woman is faithful to her first lover for a long time - unless she happens to take a second.
Our actions are like the terminations of verses, which we rhyme as we please.
The height of ability consists in a thorough knowledge of the real value of things, and of the genius of the age in which we live.
We get so much in the habit of wearing disguises before others that we finally appear disguised before ourselves.
Being a blockhead is sometimes the best security against being cheated by a man of wit.
A great many men's gratitude is nothing but a secret desire to hook in more valuable kindnesses hereafter.
The principal point of cleverness is to know how to value things just as they deserve.
It is not enough to have great qualities; We should also have the management of them.
Novelty is to love like bloom to fruit; it gives a luster which is easily effaced, but never returns.
We sometimes imagine we hate flattery, but we only hate the way we are flattered.
High fortune makes both our virtues and vices stand out as objects that are brought clearly to view by the light.
It is not enough that we should succeed, but our friends must fail as well.
To awaken a man who is deceived as to his own merit is to do him as bad a turn as that done to the Athenian madman who was happy in believing that all the ships touching at the port belonged to him.
Those who are overreached by our cunning are far from appearing to us as ridiculous as we appear to ourselves when the cunning of others has overreached us.
People would not long remain in social life if they were not the dupes of each other.