We only acknowledge small faults in order to make it appear that we are free from great ones.
Francois de La RochefoucauldGood and bad fortune are found severally to visit those who have the most of the one or the other.
Francois de La RochefoucauldTreachery is more often the effect of weakness than of a formed design.
Francois de La RochefoucauldWe often make use of envenomed praise, that reveals on the rebound, as it were, defects in those praised which we dare not exposeany other way.
Francois de La RochefoucauldModeration is caused by the fear of exciting the envy and contempt which those merit who are intoxicated with their good fortune; it is a vain display of our strength of mind, and in short the moderation of men at their greatest height is only a desire to appear greater than their fortune.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld