"What we call generosity is for the..." - Quote by 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.
More by Francois De La Rochefoucauld
“The breeding we give young people is ordinarily but an additional self-love, by which we make them have a better opinion of themselves.”
“They that apply themselves to trifling matters commonly become incapable of great ones.”
“All the passions make us commit faults; love makes us commit the most ridiculous ones.”
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“When some men discharge an obligation, you can hear the report for miles around.”
“Beauty is but a vain and doubtful good; a shining gloss that fadeth suddenly; a flower that dies when it begins to bud; a doubtful good, a gloss, a glass, a flower, lost, faded, broken, dead within an hour.”
“Our vanity is hardest to wound precisely when our pride has just been wounded.”