We confess to little faults only to persuade ourselves we have no great ones.
Francois de La RochefoucauldKings do with men as with pieces of money; they give them what value they please, and we are obliged to receive them at their current and not at their real value.
Francois de La RochefoucauldWe often credit ourselves with vices the reverse of what we have, thus when weak we boast of our obstinacy.
Francois de La RochefoucauldPerfect valour consists in doing without witnesses that which we would be capable of doing before everyone.
Francois de La RochefoucauldThe 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.
Francois de La RochefoucauldIt is a mighty error to suppose that none but violent and strong passions, such as love and ambition, are able to vanquish the rest. Even idleness, as feeble and languishing as it is, sometimes reigns over them; it usurps the throne and sits paramount over all the designs and actions of our lives, and imperceptibly wastes and destroys all our passions and all our virtues.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld