Hope, deceiving as it is, serves at least to lead us to the end of our lives by an agreeable route.
Francois de La RochefoucauldIf one judges love by the majority of its effects, it is more like hatred than like friendship.
Francois de La RochefoucauldWe are never so ridiculous through what we are as through what we pretend to be.
Francois de La RochefoucauldIt is with true love as it is with ghosts; everyone talks about it, but few have seen it.
Francois de La RochefoucauldInstead of considering that the worst way to persuade or please others is to try thus strongly to please ourselves, and that to listen well and to answer well are some of the greatest charms we can have in conversation.
Francois de La RochefoucauldWe label judges with having the meanest motives, and yet we desire that our reputation and fame should depend upon the judgment of men, who are all, either from their jealousy or preoccupation or want of intelligence, opposed to us - and yet despite their bias, just for the sake of making these men decide in our favor, we peril in so many ways both our peace and our life.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld