Francois de La Rochefoucauld Quotes

All who know their own minds know not their own hearts.

A man convinced of his own merit will accept misfortune as an honor, for thus can he persuade others, as well as himself, that he is a worthy target for the arrows of fate.

Hope is the last thing that dies in man.

Perfect courage and utter cowardice are two extremes which rarely occur.

We are never so generous as when giving advice.

Humility is often only a feigned submissiveness by which men hope to bring other people to submit to them; it is a more calculated sort of pride.

One should treat one's fate as one does one's health; enjoy it when it is good, be patient with it when it is poor, and never attempt any drastic cure save as an ultimate resort.

Gratitude is a useless word. You will find it in a dictionary but not in life.

The person giving the advice returns the confidence placed in him with a disinterested eagerness... and he is usually guided only by his own interest or reputation.

Confidence always pleases those who receive it. It is a tribute we pay to their merit, a deposit we commit to their trust, a pledge that gives them a claim upon us, a kind of dependence to which we voluntarily submit.

Happiness does not consist in things themselves but in the relish we have of them.

It is often hard to determine whether a clear, open, and honorable proceeding is the result of goodness or of cunning.

Self-interest makes some people blind, and others sharp-sighted.

The greatest part of intimate confidences proceed from a desire either to be pitied or admired.

Second-rate minds usually condemn everything beyond their grasp.

Gratitude is a lively sense of benefits to come.

The desire of talking of ourselves, and showing those faults we do not mind having seen, makes up a good part of our sincerity.

Very few people are acquainted with death. They undergo it, commonly, not so much out of resolution as custom and insensitivity; and most men die because they cannot help it.

What makes false reckoning, as regards gratitude, is that the pride of the giver and the receiver cannot agree as to the value of the benefit.

We have more ability than will power, and it is often an excuse to ourselves that we imagine that things are impossible.

Commonplace minds usually condemn what is beyond the reach of their understanding.

Extreme boredom provides its own antidote.

We often bore others when we think we cannot possibly bore them.

There are some who never would have loved if they never had heard it spoken of.

Quarrels would not last long if the fault was only on one side.

It is with true love as it is with ghosts; everyone talks about it, but few have seen it.

Sometimes there is equal or more ability in knowing how to use good advice than there is in giving it.

Some accidents there are in life that a little folly is necessary to help us out of.

Those who are incapable of committing great crimes do not readily suspect them in others.

The world more often rewards the appearances of merit than merit itself.

Why is it that our memory is good enough to retain the least triviality that happens to us, and yet not good enough to recollect how often we have told it to the same person?

Generally speaking, we would make a good bargain by renouncing all the good that people say of us, upon condition they would say no ill.

The art of using moderate abilities to advantage often brings greater results than actual brilliance

Raillery is more insupportable than wrong; because we have a right to resent injuries, but are ridiculous in being angry at a jest.

One forgives to the degree that one loves.

The caprice of our temper is even more whimsical than that of Fortune.

As we grow older we grow both more foolish and wiser at the same time.

We may say of agreeableness, as distinct from beauty, that it consists in a symmetry of which we know not the rules, and a secret conformity of the features to each other, as also to the air and complexion of the person.

Many young persons believe themselves natural when they are only impolite and coarse.

The contempt of riches in the philosophers was a concealed desire of revenging on fortune the injustice done to their merit, by despising the good she denied them.

There are more defects in temperament than in the mind.

In friendship as well as love, ignorance very often contributes more to our happiness than knowledge.

Some weak people are so sensible of their weakness as to be able to make a good use of it.

Were we faultless, we would not derive such satisfaction from remarking the faults of others.

Our own distrust gives a fair pretence for the knavery of other people.

We give nothing so freely as advice.

If we have not peace within ourselves, it is in vain to seek it from outward sources.

Old men delight in giving good advice as a consolation for the fact that they can no longer set bad examples.