Old age is a tyrant, who forbids, under pain of death, the pleasures of youth.
Francois de La RochefoucauldIt is a mistake to imagine, that the violent passions only, such as ambition and love, can triumph over the rest. Idleness, languid as it is, often masters them all; she influences all our designs and actions, and insensibly consumes and destroys both passions and virtues.
Francois de La RochefoucauldAbsence diminishes mediocre passions and increases great ones, as the wind extinguishes candles and fans fires.
Francois de La RochefoucauldSelf-interest speaks all manner of tongues and plays all manner of parts, even that of disinterestedness.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld