Quotes By 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.

As great minds have the faculty of saying a great deal in a few words, so lesser minds have a talent of talking much, and saying nothing.

We are easily comforted for the misfortunes of our friends, when those misfortunes give us an occasion of expressing our affection and solicitude.

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

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

Self-interest makes some people blind, and others sharp-sighted.

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?

The name and pretense of virtue is as serviceable to self-interest as are real vices.

In love we often doubt what we most believe.

Never give anyone the advice to buy or sell shares, because the most benevolent price of advice can turn out badly.

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

Weakness of character is the only defect which cannot be amended.

Most people know no other way of judging men's worth but by the vogue they are in, or the fortunes they have met with.

Repentance is not so much remorse for what we have done as the fear of the consequences.

We are very far from always knowing our own wishes.

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.

Our actions seem to have their lucky and unlucky stars, to which a great part of that blame and that commendation is due which is given to the actions themselves.

No men are oftener wrong than those that can least bear to be so.

We do not praise others, ordinarily, but in order to be praised ourselves.

It's easier to be wise for others than for ourselves.

You can find women who have never had an affair, but it is hard to find a woman who has had just one.

If we had no faults of our own, we should not take so much pleasure in noticing those in others.

We would rather speak ill of ourselves than not talk about ourselves at all.

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

There is only one kind of love, but there are a thousand imitations.

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

When we disclaim praise, it is only showing our desire to be praised a second time.

Ridicule dishonors a man more than dishonor does.

We should often feel ashamed of our best actions if the world could see all the motives which produced them.

The desire to seem clever often keeps us from being so.