Francois de La Rochefoucauld Quotes And Sayings

As It Is The Characteristic Of Great Wits To Say Much In Few Words, So Small Wits Seem To Have The Gift Of Speaking Much And Saying Nothing.

The Sure Way To Be Cheated Is To Think One's Self More Cunning Than Others.

Being A Blockhead Is Sometimes The Best Security Against Being Cheated By A Man Of Wit.

Jealously Is Always Born With Love But It Does Not Die With It.

The Defects Of The Mind, Like Those Of The Face, Grow Worse With Age.

Perfect Courage Is To Do Without Witnesses What One Would Be Capable Of Doing With The World Looking On.

Hypocrisy Is The Homage Vice Pays To Virtue.

The More One Loves A Mistress, The More One Is Ready To Hate Her.

We Promise In Proportion To Our Hopes, And We Deliver In Proportion To Our Fears.

Moderation Is The Feebleness And Sloth Of The Soul, Whereas Ambition Is The Warmth And Activity Of It.

We Are Never So Ridiculous Through What We Are As Through What We Pretend To Be.

That Good Disposition Which Boasts Of Being Most Tender Is Often Stifled By The Least Urging Of Self-interest.

Philosophy Finds It An Easy Matter To Vanquish Past And Future Evils, But The Present Are Commonly Too Hard For It.

Some Counterfeits Reproduce So Very Well The Truth That It Would Be A Flaw Of Judgment Not To Be Deceived By Them.

Pride, Which Inspires Us With So Much Envy, Is Sometimes Of Use Toward The Moderating Of It Too.

Pride, Which Inspires Us With So Much Envy, Is Sometimes Of Use Toward The Moderating Of It Too.

We Are Easily Comforted For The Misfortunes Of Our Friends, When Those Misfortunes Give Us An Occasion Of Expressing Our Affection And Solicitude.

Every One Speaks Well Of His Own Heart, But No One Dares Speak Well Of His Own Mind.

Nothing Is Impossible; There Are Ways That Lead To Everything, And If We Had Sufficient Will We Should Always Have Sufficient Means. It Is Often Merely For An Excuse That We Say Things Are Impossible.

We Easily Forgive Our Friends Those Faults That Do No Affect Us Ourselves.

There Are Few Virtuous Women Who Are Not Bored With Their Trade.

There Are A Great Many Men Valued In Society Who Have Nothing To Recommend Them But Serviceable Vices.

The First Lover Is Kept A Long While, When No Offer Is Made Of A Second.

We Are All Strong Enough To Bear Other Men's Misfortunes.

Love Can No More Continue Without A Constant Motion Than Fire Can; And When Once You Take Hope And Fear Away, You Take From It Its Very Life And Being.

The Generality Of Virtuous Women Are Like Hidden Treasures, They Are Safe Only Because Nobody Has Sought After Them.

What Makes The Pain We Feel From Shame And Jealousy So Cutting Is That Vanity Can Give Us No Assistance In Bearing Them.

Our Aversion To Lying Is Commonly A Secret Ambition To Make What We Say Considerable, And Have Every Word Received With A Religious Respect.

We Would Frequently Be Ashamed Of Our Good Deeds If People Saw All Of The Motives That Produced Them.

They That Apply Themselves To Trifling Matters Commonly Become Incapable Of Great Ones.

The Moderation Of People In Prosperity Is The Effect Of A Smooth And Composed Temper, Owing To The Calm Of Their Good Fortune.

Most Of Our Faults Are More Pardonable Than The Means We Use To Conceal Them.

Everyone Complains Of His Memory, And Nobody Complains Of His Judgment.

Everyone Complains Of His Memory, And Nobody Complains Of His Judgment.

We Should Often Feel Ashamed Of Our Best Actions If The World Could See All The Motives Which Produced Them.

What Is Called Generosity Is Usually Only The Vanity Of Giving; We Enjoy The Vanity More Than The Thing Given.

Perfect Valour Consists In Doing Without Witnesses That Which We Would Be Capable Of Doing Before Everyone.

The Word Virtue Is As Useful To Self-interest As The Vices.

Old Age Is A Tyrant, Who Forbids, Under Pain Of Death, The Pleasures Of Youth.

Old Age Is A Tyrant, Who Forbids, Under Pain Of Death, The Pleasures Of Youth.

Old Men Are Fond Of Giving Good Advice To Console Themselves For Their Inability To Give Bad Examples.

We Seldom Find Any Person Of Good Sense, Except Those Who Share Our Opinions.

If We Had No Faults Of Our Own, We Should Not Take So Much Pleasure In Noticing Those In Others.

The Virtues And Vices Are All Put In Motion By Interest.

In The Misfortunes Of Our Best Friends We Always Find Something Not Altogether Displeasing To Us.

The Passions Are The Only Orators Which Always Persuade.

A Refusal Of Praise Is A Desire To Be Praised Twice.

When We Disclaim Praise, It Is Only Showing Our Desire To Be Praised A Second Time.

Few Things Are Impracticable In Themselves; And It Is For Want Of Application, Rather Than Of Means, That Men Fail To Succeed.

Before We Set Our Hearts Too Much Upon Anything, Let Us Examine How Happy They Are, Who Already Possess It.