Francois de Fenelon quote: "If the riches of the Indies, or the crowns of all the kingdom of Europe, were laid at my feet in exchange for my love of reading, I would spurn them all."

Discouragement is simply the despair of wounded self-love.
FRANCOIS DE FENELON

It is only imperfection that complains of what is imperfect. The more perfect we are, the more gentl...
FRANCOIS DE FENELON

If we were faultless we should not be so much annoyed by the defects of those with whom we associate...
FRANCOIS DE FENELON

Discouragement is simply the despair of wounded self-love.
FRANCOIS DE FENELON

Children are very nice observers, and will often perceive your slightest defects. In general, those ...
FRANCOIS DE FENELON

All wars are civil wars, because all men are brothers.
FRANCOIS DE FENELON

How rare it is to find a soul quiet enough to hear God speak.
FRANCOIS FENELON

Little opportunities should be improved.
FRANCOIS FENELON

Had we not faults of our own, we should take less pleasure in complaining of others.
FRANCOIS FENELON

The past but lives in written words: a thousand ages were blank if books had not evoked their ghosts...
FRANCOIS FENELON

Most people I ask little from. I try to give them much, and expect nothing in return and I do very w...
FRANCOIS FENELON

Children are excellent observers, and will often perceive your slightest defects. In general, those ...
FRANCOIS FENELON

Exactness and neatness in moderation is a virtue, but carried to extremes narrows the mind.
FRANCOIS FENELON

The more you say, the less people remember. The fewer the words, the greater the profit.
FRANCOIS FENELON

Nothing will make us so charitable and tender to the faults of others, as, by self-examination, thor...
FRANCOIS FENELON

If the riches of the Indies, or the crowns of all the kingdom of Europe, were laid at my feet in exc...
FRANCOIS FENELON

All earthly delights are sweeter in expectation than in enjoyment; but all spiritual pleasures more ...
FRANCOIS FENELON

All wars are civil wars, because all men are brothers.
FRANCOIS FENELON

Genuine good taste consists in saying much in few words, in choosing among our thoughts, in having o...
FRANCOIS FENELON

If we were faultless we should not be so much annoyed by the defects of those with whom we associate...
FRANCOIS FENELON

Nothing is more despicable than a professional talker who uses his words as a quack uses his remedie...
FRANCOIS FENELON

Do not make best friends with a melancholy sad soul. They always are heavily loaded, and you must be...
FRANCOIS FENELON

The art of cookery is the art of poisoning mankind, by rendering the appetite still importunate, whe...
FRANCOIS FENELON

Genuine good taste consists in saying much in few words, in choosing among our thoughts, in having o...
FRANCOIS FENELON

The best use one can make of his mind is to distrust it
FRANCOIS FENELON

If the riches of the Indies, or the crowns of all the kingdoms of Europe, were laid at my feet in ex...
FRANCOIS FENELON

Peace does not dwell in outward things, but within the soul; we may preserve it in the midst of the ...
FRANCOIS FENELON

There is nothing that is more dangerous to your own salvation, more unworthy of God and more harmful...
FRANCOIS FENELON

There is a set of religious, or rather moral, writings which teach that virtue is the certain road t...
FRANCOIS FENELON

A good historian is timeless; although he is a patriot, he will never flatter his country in any res...
FRANCOIS FENELON

Most people I ask little from. I try to give them much, and expect nothing in return and I do very ...
FRANCOIS DE SALIGNAC FENELON

Exactness and neatness in moderation is a virtue, but carried to extremes narrows the mind.
FRANCOIS DE SALIGNAC FENELON

Mother Nature is one thing, but this goes beyond Mother Nature. They blew that levee. I believe the ...
RAYNOLD FENELON

Feast of François de Sales, Bishop of Geneva, Teacher, 1622 We must not be unjust and req...
FRANCOIS DE SALES

Have patience with all things, but chiefly have patience with yourself. Do not lose courage in consi...
FRANCOIS DE SALES

Feast of François de Sales, Bishop of Geneva, Teacher, 1622 Be patient, not only with res...
FRANCOIS DE SALES

Whoever preaches with love preaches sufficiently against heresy, though he may never utter a controv...
FRANCOIS DE SALES

Our days and nights Have sorrows woven with delights.
FRANCOIS DE MALHERBE

Nothing is more despicable than a professional talker who uses his words as a quack uses his remedie...
FRANCOIS DE SALIGNAC

We always love those who admire us, but we do not always love those whom we admire.
FRANCOIS

Not all those who know their minds know their hearts as well. -Francois.
FRANCOIS

One forgives to the degree that one loves.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

True love is like ghosts, which everyone talks about and few have seen.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

The principal point of cleverness is to know how to value things just as they deserve.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

Passion makes idiots of the cleverest men, and makes the biggest idiots clever.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

When we are in love we often doubt that which we most believe.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

Old men are fond of giving good advice to console themselves for their inability to give bad example...
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

People always complain about their memories, never about their minds.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

Self-interest makes some people blind, and others sharp-sighted.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

The sure way to be cheated is to think one's self more cunning than others.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

Hypocrisy is the homage vice pays to virtue.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

People's personalities, like buildings, have various facades, some pleasant to view, some not.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

However rare true love may be, it is less so than true friendship.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

We were two and had but one heart between us.
FRANCOIS DE MONTCORBIER VILLON

We are nearer loving those who hate us than those who love us more than we wish.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

We love those who admire us, but not those whom we admire.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

What makes lovers never tire of one another is that they talk always about themselves.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

It is with true love as it is with ghosts; everyone talks about it, but few have seen it.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

If we are to judge of love by its consequences, it more nearly resembles hatred than friendship.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

There are few people who are not ashamed of their love affairs when the infatuation is over.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

The more one loves a mistress, the more one is ready to hate her.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

We are more often treacherous through weakness than through calculation.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

The defects and faults of the mind are like wounds in the body; after all imaginable care has been t...
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

Being a blockhead is sometimes the best security against being cheated by a man of wit.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

If I advance, follow me! If I retreat, kill me! If I die, avenge me!
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

We forget our faults easily when they are known to ourselves alone.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

Only the great can afford to have great defects.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

If we had no faults of our own, we should not take so much pleasure in noticing those in others.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

All women are flirts, but some are restrained by shyness, and others by sense.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

Pride does not wish to owe and vanity does not wish to pay.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

There is hardly a man clever enough to recognize the full extent of the evil he does.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

We always love those who admire us; we do not always love those whom we admire.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

We sometimes imagine we hate flattery, but we only hate the way we are flattered.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

It is more easy to be wise for others than for ourselves.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

It is great folly to wish to be wise all alone.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

As it is the characteristic of great wits to say much in few words, so small wits seem to have the g...
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

It's the height of folly to want to be the only wise one.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

We are never so happy nor so unhappy as we imagine.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

A true friend is the greatest of all blessings, and that which we take the least care to acquire.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

It is more shameful to distrust our friends than to be deceived by them.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

In the misfortunes of our best friends we always find something not altogether displeasing to us.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

The common foible of women who have been handsome is to forget that they are no longer so.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

Few people know how to be old.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

Old age is a tyrant, who forbids, under pain of death, the pleasures of youth.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

Old people love to give good advice to console themselves for no longer being able to set a bad exam...
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

Bodily labor alleviates the pains of the mind and from this arises the happiness of the poor.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

Our actions are like the terminations of verses, which we rhyme as we please.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

Neither the sun nor death can be looked at with a steady eye
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

There is such a thing as a general revolution which changes the taste of men as it changes the fortu...
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

Perfect courage is to do without witnesses what one would be capable of doing with the world looking...
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

True bravery is shown by performing without witness what one might be capable of doing before all th...
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

We can never be certain of our courage until we have faced danger.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

In all professions each affects a look and an exterior to appear what he wishes the world to believe...
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

A refusal of praise is a desire to be praised twice.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

When we disclaim praise, it is only showing our desire to be praised a second time.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

Usually we praise only to be praised.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

It is easier to know men in general, than men in particular.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

Why is our memory good enough to recall to the last detail things that have happened to us, yet not ...
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

Not all those who know their minds know their hearts as well.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

The mind is always the patsy of the heart.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

All the passions are nothing else than different degrees of heat and cold of the blood.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

In the human heart new passions are forever being born; the overthrow of one almost always means the...
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

If we resist our passions, it is more through their weakness than from our strength.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

The passions are the only orators which always persuade.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

We think very few people sensible, except those who are of our opinion.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

We credit scarcely any persons with good sense except those who are of our opinion.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

Nothing is impossible; there are ways that lead to everything, and if we had sufficient will we shou...
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

Few things are impracticable in themselves; and it is for want of application, rather than of means,...
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

A person well satisfied with themselves is seldom satisfied with others, and others, rarely are with...
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

There are people who in spite of their merit disgust us, and others who please us in spite of their ...
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

When we are unable to find tranquility within ourselves, it is useless to seek it elsewhere.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

The intellect is always fooled by the heart.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

It's easier to be wise for others than for ourselves.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

The desire to seem clever often keeps us from being so.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

It is great cleverness to know how to conceal our cleverness.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

The happiness or unhappiness of men depends as much on their humors as on fortune.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

Fortune and humor govern the world.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

We like to see others, but don't like others to see through us.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

Decency is the least of all laws, but yet it is the law which is most strictly observed.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

Although men flatter themselves with their great actions, they are not so often the result of a grea...
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

Chance corrects us of many faults that reason would not know how to correct.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

What makes us so bitter against people who outwit us is that they think themselves cleverer than we ...
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

Listening well and answering well is one of the greatest perfections that can be obtained in convers...
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

Nothing so much prevents our being natural as the desire to seem so.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

To establish yourself in the world a person must do all they can to appear already established.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

The happiness and misery of men depend no less on temper than fortune.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

The reason why so few people are agreeable in conversation is that each is thinking more about what ...
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

We seldom find any person of good sense, except those who share our opinions.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

We may give advice, but not the sense to use it.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

Men give away nothing so liberally as their advice.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

The one thing people are the most liberal with, is their advice.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

We give advice, but we cannot give the wisdom to profit by it.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

Good advice is something a man gives when he is too old to set a bad example.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

We promise according to our hopes and perform according to our fears.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

Absence diminishes little passions and increases great ones, as wind extinguishes candles and fans a...
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

To know how to hide one's ability is great skill.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

The height of ability consists in a thorough knowledge of the real value of things, and of the geniu...
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

Some beautiful things are more impressive when left imperfect than when too highly finished.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

Quarrels would not last so long if the fault lay only on one side.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

Few persons have sufficient wisdom to prefer censure, which is useful, to praise which deceives them...
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

There are crimes which become innocent and even glorious through their splendor, number and excess.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

True eloquence consists in saying all that should be said, and that only.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

We often forgive those who bore us, but we cannot forgive those whom we bore.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

Conceit causes more conversation than wit.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

It is only persons of firmness that can have real gentleness. Those who appear gentle are, in genera...
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

One can find women who have never had one love affair, but it is rare indeed to find any who have ha...
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

To safeguard one's health at the cost of too strict a diet is a tiresome illness indeed.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

We never desire strongly, what we desire rationally.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

There are ways which lead to everything, and if we have sufficient will we should always have suffic...
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

The sure way to be cheated is to think one's self more cunning than others.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

The virtues and vices are all put in motion by interest.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

The fame of great men ought to be judged always by the means they used to acquire it.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

No persons are more frequently wrong, than those who will not admit they are wrong.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

It is for want of application, rather than of means that people fail,
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

Our desires always disappoint us; for though we meet with something that gives us satisfaction, yet ...
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

There are heroes in evil as well as in good.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

It is a wearisome disease to preserve health by too strict a regimen.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

When our hatred is violent, it sinks us even beneath those we hate.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

It is easier to appear worthy of a position one does not hold, than of the office which one fills.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

To achieve greatness one should live as if they will never die.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

Humility is often a false front we employ to gain power over others.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

The height of cleverness is being able to conceal it.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

Hope and fear are inseparable.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

Hope is the last thing that dies in man; and though it be exceedingly deceitful, yet it is of this g...
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

We only confess our little faults to persuade people that we have no big ones.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

Nothing is so contagious as an example. We never do great good or evil without bringing about more o...
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

There is hardly a man clever enough to recognize the full extent of the evil he does.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

We often do good in order that we may do evil with impunity.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

Jealousy is bred in doubts. When those doubts change into certainties, then the passion either cease...
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

The sure mark of one born with noble qualities is being born without envy.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

It is not enough to succeed, others must fail.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

Envy is more irreconcilable than hatred.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

In jealousy there is more of self-love than love.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

Live on doubts; it becomes madness or stops entirely as soon as we pass from doubt to certainty.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

Jealously is always born with love but it does not die with it.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

Jealousy contains more of self-love than of love.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

Our enemies come nearer the truth in the opinions they form of us than we do in our opinion of ourse...
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

Our enemies approach nearer to truth in their judgments of us than we do ourselves.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

We would rather speak badly of ourselves than not talk about ourselves at all.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

We seldom find people ungrateful so long as it is thought we can serve them.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

Too great a hurry to discharge an obligation is a kind of ingratitude.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

In most of mankind gratitude is merely a secret hope for greater favours.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

There are few good women who do not tire of their role.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

Great souls are not those who have fewer passions and more virtues than others, but only those who h...
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

Self-love is the greatest of all flatterers.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

Before we set our hearts too much on anything, let us examine how happy are those who already posses...
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

What seems to be generosity is often no more than disguised ambition, which overlooks a small intere...
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

What is called generosity is usually only the vanity of giving; we enjoy the vanity more than the th...
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

There is a kind of elevation which does not depend on fortune; it is a certain air which distinguish...
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

We pardon to the extent that we love.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

He who lives without folly isn't so wise as he thinks.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

Civility is but a desire to receive civility, and to be esteemed polite.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

Everyone complains of the badness of his memory, but nobody of his judgment.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

Timidity is a fault for which it is dangerous to reprove persons whom we wish to correct of it.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

Lovers never get tired of each other because they are forever talking about themselves.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

Men are more satirical from vanity than from malice.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

The only thing that should surprise us is that there are still some things that can surprise us.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

We have more ability than will power, and it is often an excuse to ourselves that we imagine that th...
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

Those who occupy their minds with small matters, generally become incapable of greatness.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

People's personalities, like buildings, have various facades, some pleasant to view, some not.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

If the riches of the Indies, or the crowns of all the kingdom of Europe, were laid at my feet in exchange for my love of reading, I would spurn them all.

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Francois de Fenelon

If the riches of the Indies, or the crowns of all the kingdom of Europe, were laid at my feet in exchange for my love of reading, I would spurn them all.

Francois de Fenelon

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