Francois de La Rochefoucauld Quotes

There is a kind of elevation which does not depend on fortune; it is a certain air which distinguishes us, and seems to destine us for great things; it is a price which we imperceptibly set upon ourselves.

The breeding we give young people is ordinarily but an additional self-love, by which we make them have a better opinion of themselves.

A man is ridiculous less through the characteristics he has than through those he affects to have.

Those who are overreached by our cunning are far from appearing to us as ridiculous as we appear to ourselves when the cunning of others has overreached us.

As one grows older, one becomes wiser and more foolish.

We have not enough strength to follow all our reason.

We give advice, but we cannot give the wisdom to profit by it.

We give advice, we do not inspire conduct.

To awaken a man who is deceived as to his own merit is to do him as bad a turn as that done to the Athenian madman who was happy in believing that all the ships touching at the port belonged to him.

Consolation for unhappiness can often be found in a certain satisfaction we get from looking unhappy.

There is something to be said for jealousy, because it only designs the preservation of some good which we either have or think wehave a right to. But envy is a raging madness that cannot bear the wealth or fortune of others.

There is a sort of love whose very excessiveness prevents the lover's being jealous.

However evil men may be they dare not be openly hostile to virtue, and so when they want to attack it they pretend to find it spurious , or impute crimes to it.

Great names abase, instead of elevating, those who do not know how to bear them.

There are follies as catching as contagious disorders.

There is no praise we have not lavished upon prudence; and yet she cannot assure to us the most trifling event.

Hypocrisy is an homage that vice renders to virtue.

We exaggerate the glory of some men in order to detract from that of others.

He is safe who admits no one to his confidence.

When our hatred is violent, it sinks us even beneath those we hate.

We are never so ridiculous through what we are as through what we pretend to be.

A wise man should order his interests, and set them all in their proper places. This order is often troubled by greed, which putsus upon pursuing so many things at once that, in eagerness for matters of less consideration, we grasp at trifles, and let go things of greater value.

A work can become modern only if it is first postmodern. Postmodernism thus understood is not modernism at its end but in the nascent state, and this state is constant.

Envy is destroyed by true friendship, as coquetry by true love.

Though men are apt to flatter and exalt themselves with their great achievements, yet these are, in truth, very often owing not so much to design as chance.

Pride has a greater share than goodness in the reproofs we give other people for their faults; and we chide them not so much to make them mend those faults as to make them believe that we ourselves are without fault.

It's the height of folly to want to be the only wise one.

Fortune turns all things to the advantage of those on whom she smiles.

It is more often from pride than from defective understanding that people oppose established opinions: they find the best places taken in the good party and are reluctant to accept inferior ones.

Self-love is the greatest of all flatterers.

Lovers, when they are no longer in love, find it very hard to break up.

Self-love increases or diminishes for us the good qualities of our friends, in proportion to the satisfaction we feel with them; and we judge of their merit by the manner in which they act towards us.

Women's virtue is frequently nothing but a regard to their own quiet and a tenderness for their reputation.

Pity is a sense of our own misfortunes in those of another man; it is a sort of foresight of the disasters which may befall ourselves. We assist others,, in order that they may assist us on like occasions; so that the services we offer to the unfortunate are in reality so many anticipated kindnesses to ourselves.

Our concern for the loss of our friends is not always from a sense of their worth, but rather of our own need of them and that we have lost some who had a good opinion of us.

It is easier to rule others than to keep from being ruled oneself.

What renders other people's vanity insufferable is that it wounds our own.

Imagination does not enable us to invent as many different contradictions as there are by nature in every heart.

There is at least as much eloquence in the voice, eyes, and air of a speaker as in his choice of words.

There are heroes in evil as well as in good.

Gratitude is like the good faith of traders: it maintains commerce, and we often pay, not because it is just to discharge our debts, but that we may more readily find people to trust us.

There is a form of eminence which does not depend on fate; it is an air which sets us apart and seems to prtend great things; it is the value which we unconsciously attach to ourselves; it is the quality which wins us deference of others; more than birth, position, or ability, it gives us ascendance.

The passions are the only orators which always persuade.

We are almost always wearied in the company of persons with whom we are not permitted to be weary.

Sobriety is concern for one's health - or limited capacity.

Men more easily renounce their interests than their tastes.

There are fine things that are more brilliant when they are unfinished than when finished too much.

Boredom ... causes us to neglect more duties than does interest.