Clemency, which we make a virtue of, proceeds sometimes from vanity, sometimes from indolence, often from fear, and almost always from a mixture of all three.
Francois de La RochefoucauldThere is real love just as there are real ghosts; every person speaks of it, few persons have seen it.
Francois de La RochefoucauldThe happiness and unhappiness of men depends as much on their ethics as on fortune.
Francois de La RochefoucauldTo awaken a man who is deceived as to his own merit is to do him as bad a turn as that done to the Athenian madman who was happy in believing that all the ships touching at the port belonged to him.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld