Francois de La Rochefoucauld quotes

“Why is it that our memory is good enough to retain the least triviality that happens to us, and yet not good enough to recollect how often we have told it to the same person?”

— Francois de La Rochefoucauld

“Perfect valour consists in doing without witnesses that which we would be capable of doing before everyone.”

— Francois de La Rochefoucauld

“What is called generosity is usually only the vanity of giving; we enjoy the vanity more than the thing given. ”

— Francois de La Rochefoucauld

“The word virtue is as useful to self-interest as the vices.”

— Francois de La Rochefoucauld

“One is never fortunate or as unfortunate as one imagines.”

— Francois de La Rochefoucauld

“Funeral pomp is more for the vanity of the living than for the honor of the dead.”

— Francois de La Rochefoucauld

“There are heroes in evil as well as in good.”

— 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

“Old age is a tyrant, who forbids, under pain of death, the pleasures of youth.”

— Francois de La Rochefoucauld

“Old men are fond of giving good advice to console themselves for their inability to give bad examples. ”

— Francois de La Rochefoucauld

“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.”

— Francois de La Rochefoucauld

“We seldom find any person of good sense, except those who share our opinions.”

— 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

“Usually we praise only to be praised.”

— Francois de La Rochefoucauld

“We only confess our little faults to persuade people that we have no big ones. ”

— Francois de La Rochefoucauld

“Silence is the safest course for any man to adopt who distrust himself.”

— Francois de La Rochefoucauld

“To achieve greatness one should live as if they will never die.”

— Francois de La Rochefoucauld

“There are crimes which become innocent and even glorious through their splendor, number and excess.”

— Francois de La Rochefoucauld

“Neither the sun nor death can be looked at with a steady eye.”

— Francois de La Rochefoucauld

“The sure way to be cheated is to think one's self more cunning than others.”

— Francois de La Rochefoucauld

“There is a kind of elevation which does not depend on fortune; it is a certain air which distinguishes us, and seems to destine us for great things; it is a price which we imperceptibly set upon ourselves. ”

— Francois de La Rochefoucauld

“Gracefulness is to the body what understanding is to the mind.”

— 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

“We are nearer loving those who hate us than those who love us more than we wish.”

— Francois de La Rochefoucauld

“In the misfortunes of our best friends we always find something not altogether displeasing to us.”

— Francois de La Rochefoucauld

“Great souls are not those who have fewer passions and more virtues than others, but only those who have greater designs. ”

— Francois de La Rochefoucauld

“In most of mankind gratitude is merely a secret hope of further favors.”

— Francois de La Rochefoucauld

“Those who are incapable of committing great crimes do not readily suspect them in others.”

— Francois de La Rochefoucauld

“In the human heart new passions are forever being born; the overthrow of one almost always means the rise of another.”

— Francois de La Rochefoucauld