It 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 RochefoucauldThe soul's maladies have their relapses like the body's. What we take for a cure is often just a momentary rally or a new form of the disease.
Francois de La RochefoucauldWomen's virtue is frequently nothing but a regard to their own quiet and a tenderness for their reputation.
Francois de La RochefoucauldAbsence diminishes mediocre passions and increases great ones, as the wind extinguishes candles and fans fires.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld