Francois de La Rochefoucauld quotes

“How can we expect another to keep our secret if we have been unable to keep it ourselves?”

— Francois de La Rochefoucauld

“As one grows older, one becomes wiser and more foolish. ”

— Francois de La Rochefoucauld

“We often forgive those who bore us, but we cannot forgive those whom we bore.”

— Francois de La Rochefoucauld

“The sure mark of one born with noble qualities is being born without envy.”

— Francois de La Rochefoucauld

“We are more interested in making others believe we are happy than in trying to be happy ourselves.”

— Francois de La Rochefoucauld

“The virtues and vices are all put in motion by interest.”

— Francois de La Rochefoucauld

“Jealously is always born with love but it does not die with it.”

— 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

“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.”

— Francois de La Rochefoucauld

“It is great folly to wish to be wise all alone.”

— Francois de La Rochefoucauld

“It is from a weakness and smallness of mind that men are opinionated; and we are very loath to believe what we are not able to comprehend.”

— Francois de La Rochefoucauld

“A man is sometimes as different from himself as he is from others.”

— Francois de La Rochefoucauld

“We have no patience with other people's vanity because it is offensive to our own.”

— Francois de La Rochefoucauld

“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. ”

— Francois de La Rochefoucauld

“Moderation is the feebleness and sloth of the soul, whereas ambition is the warmth and activity of it.”

— Francois de La Rochefoucauld

“The principal point of cleverness is to know how to value things just as they deserve.”

— Francois de La Rochefoucauld

“It is not in the power of even the most crafty dissimulation to conceal love long, where it really is, nor to counterfeit it long where it is not.”

— Francois de La Rochefoucauld

“People always complain about their memories, never about their minds.”

— Francois de La Rochefoucauld

“Whatever good things people say of us, they tell us nothing new.”

— Francois de La Rochefoucauld

“The first lover is kept a long while, when no offer is made of a second.”

— Francois de La Rochefoucauld

“We are sometimes as different from ourselves as we are from others.”

— Francois de La Rochefoucauld

“If there be a love pure and free from the admixture of our other passions, it is that which lies hidden in the bottom of our heart, and which we know not ourselves.”

— Francois de La Rochefoucauld

“What keeps us from abandoning ourselves entirely to one vice, often, is the fact that we have several. ”

— Francois de La Rochefoucauld

“What we call generosity is for the most part only the vanity of giving; and we exercise it because we are more fond of that vanity than of the thing we give. ”

— Francois de La Rochefoucauld

“They that apply themselves to trifling matters commonly become incapable of great ones.”

— Francois de La Rochefoucauld

“It's the height of folly to want to be the only wise one.”

— Francois de La Rochefoucauld

“We should often blush for our very best actions, if the world did but see all the motives upon which they were done.”

— Francois de La Rochefoucauld

“If we have not peace within ourselves, it is in vain to seek it from outward sources.”

— Francois de La Rochefoucauld

“Old people love to give good advice; it compensates them for their inability to set a bad example.”

— Francois de La Rochefoucauld

“Most of our faults are more pardonable than the means we use to conceal them.”

— Francois de La Rochefoucauld