Francois de La Rochefoucauld Quotes

A man of understanding finds less difficulty in submitting to a wrong-headed fellow, than in attempting to set him right.

Fortunate persons hardly ever amend their ways: they always imagine that they are in the right when fortune upholds their bad conduct.

Nothing is so contagious as example.

People would not long remain in social life if they were not the dupes of each other.

We only acknowledge small faults in order to make it appear that we are free from great ones.

It is as commendable to think well of oneself when alone, as it is ridiculous to speak well of oneself among others.

The vices enter into the composition of the virtues, as poisons into that of medicines. Prudence collects and arranges them, and uses them beneficially against the ills of life.

Passion often makes a fool of the cleverest man and often makes the most foolish men clever

The love of new acquaintance comes not so much from being weary of what we had before, or from any satisfaction there is in change, as from the distaste we feel in being too little admired by those that know us too well, and the hope of being more admired by those that know us less.

Good and bad fortune are found severally to visit those who have the most of the one or the other.

Moderation cannot have the credit of combatiug and subduing ambition, they are never found together. Moderation is the languor and indolence of the soul, as ambition is its activity and ardor.

He that would be a great man must learn to turn every accident to some advantage.

Absence abates a moderate passion and intensifies a great one - as the wind blows out a candle but fans fire into flame.

It is easier for a man to be thought fit for an employment that he has not, than for one he stands already possessed of, and is exercising.

What we take for virtue is often but an assemblage of various ambitions and activities that chance, or our own astuteness, have arranged in a certain manner; and it is not always out of courage or purity that men are brave, and women chaste.

The desire which urges us to deserve praise strengthens our good qualities, and praise given to wit, valour, and beauty, tends to increase them.

If you cannot find peace in yourself, it is useless to look for it elsewhere.

Reconciliation with our enemies is simply a desire to better our condition, a weariness of war, or the fear of some unlucky thing from occurring.

To eat is a necessity, but to eat intelligently is an art.

We love everything on our own account; we even follow our own taste and inclination when we prefer our friends to ourselves; and yet it is this preference alone that constitutes true and perfect friendship.

We forgive just so long as we love.

Hope, deceiving as it is, serves at least to lead us to the end of our lives by an agreeable route.

If one judges love according to the greatest part of the effects it produces, it would appear to resemble rather hatred than kindness.

It is not enough to have great qualities; We should also have the management of them.

We often in our misfortunes take that for constancy and patience which is only dejection of mind; we suffer without daring to holdup our heads, just as cowards let themselves be knocked on the head because they have not courage to strike back.

There is an excess both in happiness and misery above our power of sensation.

The passions do very often give birth to others of a nature most contrary to their own. Thus avarice sometimes brings forth prodigality, and prodigality avarice; a man's resolution is very often the effect of levity, and his boldness that of cowardice and fear.

The greatest part of our faults are more excusable than the methods that are commonly taken to conceal them.

Nothing is more contagious than example, and no man does any exceeding good or exceeding ill but it spawns new deeds of the same kind. The good we imitate through emulation, the ill through the malignity of our nature, which shame keeps locked up, but example sets free.

If it requires great tact to speak to the purpose, it requires no less to know when to be silent.

Avarice often produces opposite results: there are an infinite number of persons who sacrifice their property to doubtful and distant expectations; others mistake great future advantages for small present interests.

It is easy to be wise on behalf of others than to be so for ourselves.

We may seem great in an employment below our worth, but we very often look little in one that is too big for us.

We are all strong enough to bear other men's misfortunes.

None but the contemptible are apprehensive of contempt.

Vanity, shame, and above all disposition, often make men brave and women chaste.

Eloquence: saying the proper thing and stopping.

Jealousy is the greatest of all evils, and the one that arouses the least pity in the person who causes it.

The happiness and unhappiness of men depends as much on their ethics as on fortune.

People are often vain of their passions, even of the worst, but envy is a passion so timid and shame-faced that no one ever dare avow her.

It is given to few persons to keep this secret well. Those who lay down rules too often break them, and the safest we are able to give is to listen much, to speak little, and to say nothing that that will ever give ground or regret.

We often brag that we are never bored with ourselves, and are so vain as never to think ourselves bad company.

We do not wish ardently for what we desire only through reason.

Nothing is impossible; there are ways that lead to everything, and if we had sufficient will we should always have sufficient means. It is often merely for an excuse that we say things are impossible.

A man's wits are better employed in bearing up under the misfortunes that lie upon him at present than in foreseeing those that may come upon him hereafter.

Our wisdom lies as much at the mercy of fortune as our possessions do.

Those who give too much attention to trifling things become generally incapable of great ones.

Often we are firm from weakness, and audacious from timidity.