Francois de La Rochefoucauld Quotes And Sayings

François VI, Duc de La Rochefoucauld, Prince de Marcillac was a noted French author of maxims and memoirs. It is said that his world-view was clear-eyed and urbane, and that he neither condemned human conduct nor sentimentally celebrated it. Born in Paris on the Rue des Petits Champs, at a time when the royal court was vacillating between aiding the nobility and threatening it, he was considered an exemplar of the accomplished 17th-century nobleman. Until 1650, he bore the title of Prince de Marcillac.

True Love Is Like Ghosts, Which Everyone Talks About And Few Have Seen.

In The Human Heart New Passions Are Forever Being Born; The Overthrow Of One Almost Always Means The Rise Of Another.

The Force We Use On Ourselves, To Prevent Ourselves From Loving, Is Often More Cruel Than The Severest Treatment At The Hands Of One Loved.

Some People Displease With Merit, And Others' Very Faults And Defects Are Pleasing.

We All Have Enough Strength To Endure The Misfortunes Of Others.

What Seems To Be Generosity Is Often No More Than Disguised Ambition, Which Overlooks A Small Interest In Order To Secure A Great One.

The Accent Of A Man's Native Country Remains In His Mind And His Heart, As It Does In His Speech.

However Glorious An Action In Itself, It Ought Not To Pass For Great If It Be Not The Effect Of Wisdom And Intention.

Innocence Does Not Find Near So Much Protection As Guilt.

It Is With An Old Love As It Is With Old Age A Man Lives To All The Miseries, But Is Dead To All The Pleasures.

The Principal Point Of Cleverness Is To Know How To Value Things Just As They Deserve.

We May Seem Great In An Employment Below Our Worth, But We Very Often Look Little In One That Is Too Big For Us.

We Are So Accustomed To Disguise Ourselves To Others That In The End We Become Disguised To Ourselves.

It Is Often Laziness And Timidity That Keep Us Within Our Duty While Virtue Gets All The Credit.

Though Nature Be Ever So Generous, Yet Can She Not Make A Hero Alone. Fortune Must Contribute Her Part Too; And Till Both Concur, The Work Cannot Be Perfected.

A Wise Man Thinks It More Advantageous Not To Join The Battle Than To Win.

One Is Never Fortunate Or As Unfortunate As One Imagines.

Funeral Pomp Is More For The Vanity Of The Living Than For The Honor Of The Dead.

It Takes Nearly As Much Ability To Know How To Profit By Good Advice As To Know How To Act For One's Self.

A Man's Worth Has Its Season, Like Fruit.

We Come Altogether Fresh And Raw Into The Several Stages Of Life, And Often Find Ourselves Without Experience, Despite Our Years.

No Man Deserves To Be Praised For His Goodness, Who Has It Not In His Power To Be Wicked. Goodness Without That Power Is Generally Nothing More Than Sloth, Or An Impotence Of Will.

Jealousy Contains More Of Self-love Than Of Love.

Jealousy Lives Upon Doubts. It Becomes Madness Or Ceases Entirely As Soon As We Pass From Doubt To Certainty.

Gratitude Is Merely The Secret Hope Of Further Favors.

The Desire To Seem Clever Often Keeps Us From Being So.

No Man Is Clever Enough To Know All The Evil He Does.

Perfect Behavior Is Born Of Complete Indifference.

To Know How To Hide One's Ability Is Great Skill.

Perhaps Being Old Is Having Lighted Rooms Inside Your Head, And People In Them, Acting. People You Know, Yet Can't Quite Name.

Weakness Of Character Is The Only Defect Which Cannot Be Amended.

Confidence Contributes More To Conversation Than Wit.

Repentance Is Not So Much Remorse For What We Have Done As The Fear Of The Consequences.

In Love We Often Doubt What We Most Believe.

If We Resist Our Passions, It Is More Due To Their Weakness Than Our Strength.

We Give Advice, But We Cannot Give The Wisdom To Profit By It.

The Reason Why So Few People Are Agreeable In Conversation Is That Each Is Thinking More About What He Intends To Say Than Others Are Saying.

Silence Is The Safest Course For Any Man To Adopt Who Distrust Himself.

There Are Crimes Which Become Innocent And Even Glorious Through Their Splendor, Number And Excess.

Neither The Sun Nor Death Can Be Looked At With A Steady Eye.

We Are More Interested In Making Others Believe We Are Happy Than In Trying To Be Happy Ourselves.

The Only Thing That Should Surprise Us Is That There Are Still Some Things That Can Surprise Us.

The Mind Is Always The Patsy Of The Heart.

In All Professions Each Affects A Look And An Exterior To Appear What He Wishes The World To Believe That He Is. Thus We May Say That The Whole World Is Made Up Of Appearances.

It Is Easier To Appear Worthy Of A Position One Does Not Hold, Than Of The Office Which One Fills.

Taste May Change, But Inclination Never.

There Are Various Sorts Of Curiosity; One Is From Interest, Which Makes Us Desire To Know That Which May Be Useful To Us; And The Other, From Pride Which Comes From The Wish To Know What Others Are Ignorant Of.

The Happiness And Misery Of Men Depend No Less On Temper Than Fortune.

We Always Get Bored With Those Whom We Bore.

Pride Does Not Wish To Owe And Vanity Does Not Wish To Pay.