In great affairs we ought to apply ourselves less to creating chances than to profiting from those that offer.
Francois de La RochefoucauldL'absence diminue les mediocres passions, et augmente les grandes,comme le vent eteint les bougies, et allume le feu. Absence diminishes commonplace passions, and increases great ones, as wind extinguishes candles and kindles fire.
Francois de La RochefoucauldAll our qualities, whether good or bad, are unstable and ambiguous, and almost all are at the mery of chance.
Francois de La RochefoucauldWhen we disclaim praise, it is only showing our desire to be praised a second time.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld