We give advice, but we do not inspire conduct.


Francois Duc de la Rochefoucauld

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We may give advice but we cannot give conduct
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN
Hope and fear are inseparable. -La Rochefoucauld.
LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
Perfect courage means doing unwitnessed what we would be capable of with the world looking on. -La ...
LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
En la adversidad de nuestros mejores amigos siempre encontramos algo que no nos desagrada
FRANçOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
En la amistad como en el amor se es más feliz por las cosas que se ignoran que por las que se saben...
FRANçOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
If you love someone you must set them free like the wind and give them the respect they deserve.If y...
GARY F EVANS...
People are attracted to who we are more than what we do.
LORRIN L. LEE
L'amour affronte la Mort ; lui seul, non pas la vertu, est plus fort qu'elle. Lui seul (pas la vertu...
THOMAS MANN
Love is a symbol of eternity. It wipes out all sense of time, destroying all memory of a beginning a...
MADAME DE STAEL
Reading is a free practice. I think the readers are free to begin by the books where they want to. T...
J. M. G. LE CLEZIO
The novelist, he's not a philosopher, not a technician of spoken language. He's someone who ...
J. M. G. LE CLEZIO
A writer is not a prophet, is not a philosopher; he's just someone who is witness to what is aro...
J. M. G. LE CLEZIO
I can understand better than most the contradiction between the idealistic civilisation and religiou...
J. M. G. LE CLEZIO
I'm used to shifting languages because my father used to speak to us, to my brother and I, he us...
J. M. G. LE CLEZIO
I have the feeling of being a very small item on this planet, and literature enables me to express t...
J. M. G. LE CLEZIO
The writer, the poet, the novelist, are all creators. This does not mean that they invent language; ...
J. M. G. LE CLEZIO
When I was a child, I grew up speaking French, I mean, in a French public school. So my first contac...
J. M. G. LE CLEZIO
My English is closer to the literary English, and I'm not very familiar with jokes in English or...
J. M. G. LE CLEZIO
I grew up in a Mauritian bubble in France... I had the feeling of not belonging, but still living wi...
J. M. G. LE CLEZIO
I've always felt very much from a mixed culture - mainly English and French, but also Nigerian, ...
J. M. G. LE CLEZIO
I don't have any office; I can write everywhere. So, I put a piece of paper on the table, and th...
J. M. G. LE CLEZIO
To understand the hidden secret of the modern industrial world in which I find myself, I have to ret...
J. M. G. LE CLEZIO
If I examine the circumstances which inspired me to write - and this is not mere self-indulgence, bu...
J. M. G. LE CLEZIO
Language is the most extraordinary invention in the history of humanity, the one which came before e...
J. M. G. LE CLEZIO
To act: that is what the writer would like to be able to do, above all. To act, rather than to bear ...
J. M. G. LE CLEZIO
I enjoy very much being in a foreign country, in a new country, new place. And I enjoy also beginnin...
J. M. G. LE CLEZIO
And all around is the desert; a corner of the mournful kingdom of sand.
PIERRE LOTI
Emotions have taught mankind to reason.
LUC DE CLAPIERS
Everyone is born sincere and die deceivers.
LUC DE CLAPIERS
Wicked people are always surprised to find ability in those that are good.
LUC DE CLAPIERS
To achieve great things we must live as though we were never going to die.
LUC DE CLAPIERS
Our failings sometimes bind us to one another as closely as could virtue itself.
LUC DE CLAPIERS
When a thought is too weak to be expressed simply, it should be rejected.
LUC DE CLAPIERS
The maxims of men reveal their characters.
LUC DE CLAPIERS
Obscurity is the realm of error.
LUC DE CLAPIERS
The wicked are always surprised to find ability in the good.
LUC DE CLAPIERS
The fruit derived from labor is the sweetest of pleasures.
LUC DE CLAPIERS
The greatest evil which fortune can inflict on men is to endow them with small talents and great amb...
LUC DE CLAPIERS
Those who can bear all can dare all.
LUC DE CLAPIERS
We should expect the best and the worst of mankind, as from the weather.
LUC DE CLAPIERS
One can not be just if one is not humane.
LUC DE CLAPIERS
Clearness ornaments profound thoughts.
LUC DE CLAPIERS
Patience is the art of hoping.
LUC DE CLAPIERS
All grand thoughts come from the heart.
LUC DE CLAPIERS
Indolence is the sleep of the mind.
LUC DE CLAPIERS
One promises much, to avoid giving little.
LUC DE CLAPIERS
Lazy people are always anxious to be doing something.
LUC DE CLAPIERS
Great thoughts come from the heart.
LUC DE CLAPIERS
The things we know best are the things we haven't been taught.
LUC DE CLAPIERS
The most absurd and reckless aspirations have sometimes led to extraordinary success.
LUC DE CLAPIERS
The art of pleasing is the art of deception.
LUC DE CLAPIERS
The greatest achievement of the human spirit is to live up to one's opportunities and make the m...
LUC DE CLAPIERS
One is not born a woman, but becomes one.
SIMONE DE BEAUVOIR
No one is more arrogant toward women, more aggressive or scornful, than the man who is anxious about...
SIMONE DE BEAUVOIR
Life is occupied in both perpetuating itself and in surpassing itself; if all it does is maintain it...
SIMONE DE BEAUVOIR
If you live long enough, you'll see that every victory turns into a defeat.
SIMONE DE BEAUVOIR
Art is an attempt to integrate evil.
SIMONE DE BEAUVOIR
Representation of the world, like the world itself, is the work of men; they describe it from their ...
SIMONE DE BEAUVOIR
In itself, homosexuality is as limiting as heterosexuality: the ideal should be to be capable of lov...
SIMONE DE BEAUVOIR
It is old age, rather than death, that is to be contrasted with life. Old age is life's parody, ...
SIMONE DE BEAUVOIR
Society, being codified by man, decrees that woman is inferior; she can do away with this inferiorit...
SIMONE DE BEAUVOIR
I am incapable of conceiving infinity, and yet I do not accept finity.
SIMONE DE BEAUVOIR
Pleasure only starts once the worm has got into the fruit, to become delightful happiness must be ta...
GEORGES BATAILLE
The mystery of existence is the connection between our faults and our misfortunes.
MADAME DE STAEL
Sow good services: sweet remembrances will grow from them.
MADAME DE STAEL
That past which is so presumptuously brought forward as a precedent for the present, was itself foun...
MADAME DE STAEL
Genius is essentially creative; it bears the stamp of the individual who possesses it.
MADAME DE STAEL
Wit consists in knowing the resemblance of things that differ, and the difference of things that are...
MADAME DE STAEL
A man must know how to fly in the face of opinion; a woman to submit to it.
MADAME DE STAEL
Prayer is more than meditation. In meditation, the source of strength is one's self. When one pr...
MADAME DE STAEL
To be totally understanding makes one very indulgent.
MADAME DE STAEL
Wit lies in recognizing the resemblance among things which differ and the difference between things ...
MADAME DE STAEL
Love is the whole history of a woman's life, it is but an episode in a man's.
MADAME DE STAEL
Search for the truth is the noblest occupation of man; its publication is a duty.
MADAME DE STAEL
Innocence in genius, and candor in power, are both noble qualities.
MADAME DE STAEL
The voice of conscience is so delicate that it is easy to stifle it; but it is also so clear that it...
MADAME DE STAEL
Scientific progress makes moral progress a necessity; for if man's power is increased, the check...
MADAME DE STAEL
We cease loving ourselves if no one loves us.
MADAME DE STAEL
One must choose in life between boredom and suffering.
MADAME DE STAEL
Politeness is the art of choosing among your thoughts.
MADAME DE STAEL
In matters of the heart, nothing is true except the improbable.
MADAME DE STAEL
When a noble life has prepared for old age, it is not decline that it reveals, but the first days of...
MADAME DE STAEL
A religious life is a struggle and not a hymn.
MADAME DE STAEL
Men err from selfishness; women because they are weak.
MADAME DE STAEL
The more I see of men the more I like dogs.
MADAME DE STAEL
The greatest happiness is to transform one's feelings into action.
MADAME DE STAEL
The human mind always makes progress, but it is a progress in spirals.
MADAME DE STAEL
When one tears away the veils and shows them naked, people's souls give off such a pungent smell...
OCTAVE MIRBEAU
The greatest danger of bombs is in the explosion of stupidity that they provoke.
OCTAVE MIRBEAU
Women make us poets, children make us philosophers.
MALCOLM DE CHAZAL
The family is a court of justice which never shuts down for night or day.
MALCOLM DE CHAZAL
We always keep God waiting while we admit more importunate suitors.
MALCOLM DE CHAZAL
Our expression and our words never coincide, which is why the animals don't understand us.
MALCOLM DE CHAZAL
Women eat while they are talking; men talk while they are eating.
MALCOLM DE CHAZAL
Animals awaken, first facially, then bodily. Men's bodies wake before their faces do. The animal...
MALCOLM DE CHAZAL
The mind gets distracted in all sorts of ways. The heart is its own exclusive concern and diversion.
MALCOLM DE CHAZAL
The beautiful remains so in ugly surroundings.
MALCOLM DE CHAZAL
The man who can make others laugh secures more votes for a measure than the man who forces them to t...
MALCOLM DE CHAZAL
The flower is a jumble of thighs, the sun's harem - the most oriental thing imaginable.
MALCOLM DE CHAZAL
Art is nature speeded up and God slowed down.
MALCOLM DE CHAZAL

More Francois Duc de la Rochefoucauld

Preserving the health by too strict a regimen is a worrisome malady.
FRANCOIS DUC DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
The only good copies are those which exhibit the defects of bad originals.
FRANCOIS DUC DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power.
FRANCOIS DUC DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
In the adversity of our best friends we often find something which does not displease us. [Fr., D...
FRANCOIS DUC DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
The greatest miracle of love is the cure of coquetry.
FRANCOIS DUC DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
Women know not the whole of their coquetry.
FRANCOIS DUC DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
Coquetry is the essential characteristic, and the prevalent humor of women; but they do not all pra...
FRANCOIS DUC DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
It is a species of coquetry to make a parade of never practising it.
FRANCOIS DUC DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
Too great refinement is false delicacy, and true delicacy is solid refinement.
FRANCOIS DUC DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
Some people resemble ballads which are only sung for a certain time.
FRANCOIS DUC DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
Hypocrisy is the homage which vice renders to virtue. [Fr., L'hypocrisie est un hommage que le vic...
FRANCOIS DUC DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
We always love those who admire us, and we do not always love those whom we admire.
FRANCOIS DUC DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
On dit que dans ses amours Il fut caresse des belles, Qui le suivirent toujours, Tant qu...
FRANCOIS DUC DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
It is easier to appear worthy of a position one does not hold, than of the office which one fills. ...
FRANCOIS DUC DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
We do not despise all those who have vices, but we despise all those who have not a single virtue.
FRANCOIS DUC DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
We say little if not egged on by vanity. [Fr., On parle peu quand la vanite ne fait pas parler.]
FRANCOIS DUC DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
Men are more satirical from vanity than from malice.
FRANCOIS DUC DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
What seems to be generosity is often no more than disguised ambition, which overlooks a small inter...
FRANCOIS, DUC DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
Language tethers us to the world; without it we spin like atoms.
FRANCOIS DUC DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
The accent of one's country dwells in the mind and in the heart as much as in the language. [Fr.,...
FRANCOIS DUC DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
We sometimes see a fool possessed of talent, but never of judgment. [Fr., On est quelquefois un s...
FRANCOIS DUC DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
In jealousy there is more self-love than love.
FRANCOIS DUC DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
Courage is not simply one of the virtues but the form of every virtue at the testing point.
FRANCOIS DUC DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
How can we expect another to keep our secret if we cannot keep it ourselves.
FRANCOIS DUC DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
A refusal of praise is a desire to be praised twice.
FRANCOIS DUC DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
The truest mark of being born with great qualities, is being born without envy.
FRANCOIS, DUC DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
There is great ability in knowing how to conceal one's ability.
FRANCOIS, DUC DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
There is merit without elevation, but there is no elevation without some merit. [Fr., Il y a du m...
FRANCOIS DUC DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
There is a season for man's merit as well as for fruit. [Fr., Le merite des hommes a sa saison aus...
FRANCOIS DUC DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
The world rewards the appearance of merit oftener than merit itself. [Fr., Le monde recompense pl...
FRANCOIS DUC DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
The passions are the only orators that always persuade: they are, as it were, a natural art, the r...
FRANCOIS DUC DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
We hardly find any persons of good sense save those who agree with us.
FRANCOIS DUC DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
It is the prerogative of great men only to have great defects. [Fr., Il n'appartient qu'aux grands...
FRANCOIS DUC DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
The gratitude of most men is but a secret desire of receiving greater benefits.
FRANCOIS DUC DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
If we resist our passions it is more from their weakness than from our strength.
FRANCOIS DUC DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
We sometimes think that we hate flattery, but we only hate the manner in which it is done. [Fr., ...
FRANCOIS DUC DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
Gallantry of mind consists in saying flattering things in an agreeable manner.
FRANCOIS DUC DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
Some hypocrites and seeming mortified men, that held down their heads, were like the little images ...
FRANCOIS DUC DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
That which makes the vanity of others unbearable to us is that which wounds our own. [Fr., Ce qui...
FRANCOIS DUC DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
One may outwit another, but not all the others. [Fr., On peut etre plus fin qu'un autre, mais non ...
FRANCOIS DUC DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
Attention to health is life greatest hindrance.
FRANCOIS DUC DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
We are more interested in making others believe we are happy than in trying to be happy ourselves.
FRANCOIS DUC DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
We can never be certain of our courage until we have faced danger. [Fr., On ne peut repondre de s...
FRANCOIS DUC DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
There are heroes in evil as well as in good.
FRANCOIS DUC DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
That is fine, and I would have praised you more had you praised me less. [Fr., Cela est beau, et ...
FRANCOIS DUC DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
All the passions are nothing else than different degrees of heat and cold of the blood. [Fr., Tou...
FRANCOIS DUC DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
True bravery is shown by performing without witness what one might be capable of doing before all t...
FRANCOIS DUC DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
Absence diminishes little passions and increases great ones, as the wind extinguishes candles and f...
FRANCOIS DUC DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
To know how to hide one's ability is great skill. [Fr., C'est une grande habilete que de savoir ca...
FRANCOIS DUC DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
Almost all our faults are more pardonable than the methods we resort to hide them.
FRANCOIS DUC DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
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 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.
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Few persons have sufficient wisdom to prefer censure, which is useful, to praise which deceives them...
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There are crimes which become innocent and even glorious through their splendor, number and excess.
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True eloquence consists in saying all that should be said, and that only.
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We often forgive those who bore us, but we cannot forgive those whom we bore.
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Conceit causes more conversation than wit.
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It is only persons of firmness that can have real gentleness. Those who appear gentle are, in genera...
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One can find women who have never had one love affair, but it is rare indeed to find any who have ha...
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To safeguard one's health at the cost of too strict a diet is a tiresome illness indeed.
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We never desire strongly, what we desire rationally.
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There are ways which lead to everything, and if we have sufficient will we should always have suffic...
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The sure way to be cheated is to think one's self more cunning than others.
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The virtues and vices are all put in motion by interest.
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The fame of great men ought to be judged always by the means they used to acquire it.
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No persons are more frequently wrong, than those who will not admit they are wrong.
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It is for want of application, rather than of means that people fail,
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Our desires always disappoint us; for though we meet with something that gives us satisfaction, yet ...
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There are heroes in evil as well as in good.
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It is a wearisome disease to preserve health by too strict a regimen.
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When our hatred is violent, it sinks us even beneath those we hate.
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It is easier to appear worthy of a position one does not hold, than of the office which one fills.
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To achieve greatness one should live as if they will never die.
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Humility is often a false front we employ to gain power over others.
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The height of cleverness is being able to conceal it.
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Hope and fear are inseparable.
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Hope is the last thing that dies in man; and though it be exceedingly deceitful, yet it is of this g...
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We only confess our little faults to persuade people that we have no big ones.
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Nothing is so contagious as an example. We never do great good or evil without bringing about more o...
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There is hardly a man clever enough to recognize the full extent of the evil he does.
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We often do good in order that we may do evil with impunity.
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Jealousy is bred in doubts. When those doubts change into certainties, then the passion either cease...
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The sure mark of one born with noble qualities is being born without envy.
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It is not enough to succeed, others must fail.
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Envy is more irreconcilable than hatred.
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In jealousy there is more of self-love than love.
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Live on doubts; it becomes madness or stops entirely as soon as we pass from doubt to certainty.
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Jealously is always born with love but it does not die with it.
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Jealousy contains more of self-love than of love.
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Our enemies come nearer the truth in the opinions they form of us than we do in our opinion of ourse...
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Our enemies approach nearer to truth in their judgments of us than we do ourselves.
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We would rather speak badly of ourselves than not talk about ourselves at all.
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We seldom find people ungrateful so long as it is thought we can serve them.
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Too great a hurry to discharge an obligation is a kind of ingratitude.
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In most of mankind gratitude is merely a secret hope for greater favours.
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There are few good women who do not tire of their role.
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Great souls are not those who have fewer passions and more virtues than others, but only those who h...
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Self-love is the greatest of all flatterers.
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Before we set our hearts too much on anything, let us examine how happy are those who already posses...
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What seems to be generosity is often no more than disguised ambition, which overlooks a small intere...
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What is called generosity is usually only the vanity of giving; we enjoy the vanity more than the th...
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There is a kind of elevation which does not depend on fortune; it is a certain air which distinguish...
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We pardon to the extent that we love.
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He who lives without folly isn't so wise as he thinks.
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Civility is but a desire to receive civility, and to be esteemed polite.
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