François de La Rochefoucauld Quotes

“As the great ones of this world are unable to bestow health of body or peace of mind, we always pay too high a price for any good they can do.”

“Civility is a desire to receive civilities, and to be accounted well-bred.”

“The person giving the advice returns the confidence placed in him with a disinterested eagerness... and he is usually guided only by his own interest or reputation.”

“The contempt of riches in philosophers was only a hidden desire to avenge their merit upon the injustice of fortune, by despising the very goods of which fortune had deprived them; it was a secret to guard themselves against the degradation of poverty, it was a back way by which to arrive at that distinction which they could not gain by riches.”

“The judgments our enemies make about us come nearer to the truth than those we make about ourselves.”

“Moderation is like sobriety: you would like to have some more, but are afraid of making yourself ill.”

“The reason why most women have so little sense of friendship is that this is but a cold and flat passion to those that have felt that of love.”

“The only security is courage.”

“If vanity does not entirely overthrow the virtues, at least it makes them all totter.”

“Renewed friendships require more care than those that have never been broken.”

“Everyone agrees that a secret should be kept intact, but everyone does not agree as to the nature and importance of secrecy. Too often we consult ourselves as to what we should say, what we should leave unsaid. There are few permanent secrets, and the scruple against revealing them will not last forever.”

“Men never desire anything very eagerly which they desire only by the dictates of reason.”

“As long as we love, we can forgive.”

“Self-love, as it happens to be well or ill conducted, constitutes virtue and vice.”

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

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

“The reason that lovers never weary each other is because they are always talking about themselves.”

“Confidence always pleases those who receive it. It is a tribute we pay to their merit, a deposit we commit to their trust, a pledge that gives them a claim upon us, a kind of dependence to which we voluntarily submit.”

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

“One forgives to the degree that one loves.”

“Sometimes we meet a fool with wit, never one with discretion.”

“Sometimes accidents happen in life from which we have need of a little madness to extricate ourselves successfully”

“We feel good and ill only in proportion to our self-love.”

“We speak little if not egged on by vanity.”

“Youth is a perpetual intoxication; it is a fever of the mind.”