Jean Francois Paul de Gondi Quotes

There are no small steps in great affairs.

Nothing indicates the soundness of a man's judgment so much as knowing how to choose between two disadvantages.

The most mistrustful are often the greatest dupes.

Most men only commit great crimes because of their scruples about petty ones.

Great men help dazzle the people; after that, they dazzle themselves even more dangerously.

One of man's greatest failings is that he looks almost always for an excuse, in the misfortune that befalls him through his own fault, before looking for a remedy-which means he often finds the remedy too late.

If you have to make an unpopular speech, give it all the sincerity you can muster; that's the only way to sweeten it.

Every man whom chance alone has, by some accident, made a public character, hardly ever fails of becoming, in a short time, a ridiculous private one.

She knew how to trust people... a rare quality, revealing a character far above average.

A man who never trusts himself never trusts anyone.

In a major matter no details are small.

Weak souls always set to work at the wrong time.

Of all the passions, fear weakens judgment most.

Weakness has many stages. There is a difference between feebleness by the impotency of the will, of the will to the resolution, of the resolution to the choice of means, of the choice of the means to the application.

A man who doesn't trust himself can never really trust anyone else.

A man who does not trust himself will never really trust anybody.

What is necessary is never a risk.

The man who can own up to his error is greater than he who merely knows how to avoid making it.

Nothing sways the stupid more than arguments they can't understand.

When you are obliged to make a statement that you know will cause displeasure, you must say it with every appearance of sincerity; this is the only way to make it palatable.

Timorous minds are much more inclined to deliberate than to resolve.

It's easier to fight one's enemies than to get on with one's friends.

Where princes are concerned, a man who is able to do good is as dangerous and almost as criminal as a man who intends to do evil.