French author (1613-1680)
We judge so superficially of things, that common words and actions spoke and done in an agreeable manner, with some knowledge of what passes in the world, often succeed beyond the greatest ability.
FRANÇOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
Moral Maxims
What makes the vanity of others unsupportable is that it wounds our own.
FRANÇOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims
The rust of business is sometimes polished off in a camp; but never in a court.
FRANÇOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
Moral Maxims
There are some disguised falsehoods so like truths, that 'twould be to judge ill not to be deceived by them.
FRANÇOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
Moral Maxims
We may say, vices wait on us in the course of our life as the landlords with whom we successively lodge, and if we traveled the road twice over, I doubt if our experience would make us avoid them.
LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
attributed, Encyclopædia of Quotations: A Treasury of Wisdom, Wit and Humor, Odd Comparisons and Proverbs
We love much better those who endeavor to imitate us, than those who strive to equal us. For imitation is a sign of esteem, but competition of envy.
FRANÇOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
Moral Maxims
We easily forgive in our friends those faults we do not perceive.
FRANÇOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims
Envy is destroyed by true friendship, and coquetry by true love.
FRANÇOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
Moral Maxims
We should not be much concerned about faults we have the courage to own.
FRANÇOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
Moral Maxims
The constancy of the wise is only the talent of concealing the agitation of their hearts.
FRANÇOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims
Our actions are like blank rhymes, to which everyone applies what sense he pleases.
FRANÇOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
Moral Maxims
A man cannot please long who has only one kind of wit.
FRANÇOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims
Death and the sun can't be looked at steadily.
FRANÇOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
Moral Maxims
Quarrels would not last long if the fault was only on one side.
FRANÇOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims
Misers mistake gold for their good; whereas 'tis only a means of attaining it.
FRANÇOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
Moral Maxims
We try to make a virtue of vices we are loath to correct.
FRANÇOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims
The ambitious deceive themselves in proposing an end to their ambition; that end, when attained, becomes a means.
FRANÇOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
Moral Maxims
We may say of agreeableness, as distinct from beauty, that it is a symmetry whose rules are unknown.
FRANÇOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
Moral Maxims
To praise great actions is in some sense to share them.
FRANÇOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
Moral Maxims
Those who have the most cunning affect all their lives to condemn cunning; that they may make use of it on some great occasion, and to some great end.
FRANÇOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
Moral Maxims