The principal point of cleverness is to know how to value things just as they deserve.
Francois de La RochefoucauldRepentance is not so much remorse for what we have done as the fear of the consequences.
Francois de La RochefoucauldThose who are incapable of committing great crimes do not readily suspect them in others.
Francois de La RochefoucauldLove has its name borrowed by a great number of dealings and affairs that are attributed to it--in which it has no greater part than the Doge in what is done at Venice.
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