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.
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