"Our self-love can less bear to have..." - Quote by Francois De La Rochefoucauld

“Hope and fear are inseparable. There is no hope without fear, nor any fear without hope.”

“There is such a thing as a general revolution which changes the taste of men as it changes the fortunes of the world.”

“To safeguard one's health at the cost of too strict a diet is a tiresome illness, indeed.”

“That man alone loves himself rightly who procures the greatest possible good to himself through the whole of his existence and so pursues pleasure as not to give for it more than it is worth.”

“I must be myself. I cannot break myself any longer for you, or you. If you can love me for what I am, we shall be the happier. If you cannot, I will still seek to seserve that you should.”

“If we never flattered ourselves we should have but scant pleasure.”

“We are always more anxious to be distinguished for a talent which we do not possess, than to be praised for the fifteen which we do possess. Sometimes we are too close to the scene, to see clearly. We "know" ourselves so well that we cannot see how we are perceived by others. Our opinion of ourselves is only "one" opinion and it may not be the truth.”

“Vanity is so anchored in the heart of man that a soldier, a soldier's servant, a cook, a porter brags and wishes to have his admirers. Even philosophers wish for them. Those who write against vanity want to have the glory of having written well; and those who read it desire the glory of having read it. I who write this have perhaps this desire, and perhaps those who will read it.”

“Sometimes we think we dislike flattery, but it is only the way it is done that we dislike.”