Famous De La Rochefoucauld Quotations

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"The art of using moderate abilities to advantage wins praise, and often acquires more reputation than actual brilliancy."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"Not all those who know their minds know their hearts as well."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"What seems to be generosity is often no more than disguised ambition, which overlooks a small interest in order to secure a great one."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"We would frequently be ashamed of our good deeds if people saw all of the motives that produced them."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"A true friend is the greatest of all blessings, and that which we take the least care of all to acquire."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"Pride does not wish to owe and vanity does not wish to pay."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"Confidence contributes more to conversation than wit."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"Few things are impracticable in themselves; and it is for want of application, rather than of means, that men fail to succeed."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"A refusal of praise is a desire to be praised twice."
by Francois de la Rochefoucauld
"The happiness and misery of men depend no less on temper than fortune."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"The only thing that should surprise us is that there are still some things that can surprise us."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"The reason why so few people are agreeable in conversation is that each is thinking more about what he intends to say than others are saying."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"The sure way to be cheated is to think one's self more cunning than others."
by Francois de la Rochefoucauld
"The sure mark of one born with noble qualities is being born without envy."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"There are crimes which become innocent and even glorious through their splendor, number and excess."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"There are few virtuous women who are not bored with their trade."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"Timidity is a fault for which it is dangerous to reprove persons whom we wish to correct of it."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"Those who occupy their minds with small matters, generally become incapable of greatness."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"To know how to hide one's ability is great skill."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"We are so accustomed to disguise ourselves to others that in the end we become disguised to ourselves."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"Usually we praise only to be praised."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"We only confess our little faults to persuade people that we have no big ones."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"We seldom find any person of good sense, except those who share our opinions."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"When we disclaim praise, it is only showing our desire to be praised a second time."
by Francois de la Rochefoucauld
"As one grows older, one becomes wiser and more foolish."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"As it is the characteristic of great wits to say much in few words, so small wits seem to have the gift of speaking much and saying nothing."
by Francois de la Rochefoucauld
"If we had no faults of our own, we should not take so much pleasure in noticing those in others."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"If it were not for the company of fools, a witty man would often be greatly at a loss."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"In all professions each affects a look and an exterior to appear what he wishes the world to believe that he is. Thus we may say that the whole world is made up of appearances."
by Francois de la Rochefoucauld
"It's the height of folly to want to be the only wise one."
by Francois de la Rochefoucauld
"Most of our faults are more pardonable than the means we use to conceal them."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"No persons are more frequently wrong, than those who will not admit they are wrong."
by Francois de la Rochefoucauld
"Nothing prevents one from appearing natural as the desire to appear natural."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"Perfect Valor is to do, without a witness, all that we could do before the whole world."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"Perfect courage is to do without witnesses what one would be capable of doing with the world looking on."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"Taste may change, but inclination never."
by Francois de la Rochefoucauld
"Quarrels would not last long if the fault were only on one side."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"The accent of one's birthplace remains in the mind and in the heart as in one's speech."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"Jealousy is bred in doubts. When those doubts change into certainties, then the passion either ceases or turns absolute madness."
by Francois de la Rochefoucauld
"Jealousy contains more of self-love than of love."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"Jealously is always born with love but it does not die with it."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"It is great folly to wish to be wise all alone."
by Francois de la Rochefoucauld
"Conceit causes more conversation than wit."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"The reason that lovers never weary each other is because they are always talking about themselves."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"Perfect valour consists in doing without witnesses that which we would be capable of doing before everyone."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"When we are in love we often doubt that which we most believe."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"Gratitude is merely the secret hope of further favors."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"However rare true love may be, it is less so than true friendship."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"We are never so ridiculous through what we are as through what we pretend to be."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"Never give anyone the advice to buy or sell shares, because the most benevolent price of advice can turn out badly."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"The mind cannot long play the heart's role."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"On neither the sun, nor death, can a man look fixedly."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"I have always been an admirer. I regard the gift of admiration as indispensable if one is to amount to something; I don't know where I would be without it."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"Every one speaks well of his own heart, but no one dares speak well of his own mind."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"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."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"A great many men's gratitude is nothing but a secret desire to hook in more valuable kindnesses hereafter."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"A man is sometimes as different from himself as he is from others."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"A man's worth has its season, like fruit."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"Absence extinguishes small passions and increases great ones, as the wind blows out a candle, and blows in a fire."
by De La Rochefoucauld.
"A wise man thinks it more advantageous not to join the battle than to win."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"All the passions make us commit faults; love makes us commit the most ridiculous ones."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"As great minds have the faculty of saying a great deal in a few words, so lesser minds have a talent of talking much, and saying nothing."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"Being a blockhead is sometimes the best security against being cheated by a man of wit."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"Before we set our hearts too much upon anything, let us examine how happy those are who already possess it."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"Before we set our hearts too much upon anything, let us examine how happy they are, who already possess it."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"Decency is the least of all laws, but yet it is the law which is most strictly observed."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"Everyone complains of his memory, and nobody complains of his judgment."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"Few are agreeable in conversation, because each thinks of what he intends to say than of what others are saying, and listens no more when he himself has a chance to speak."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"Flattery is a kind of bad money, to which our vanity gives us currency."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"Few people have the wisdom to prefer the criticism that would do them good, to the praise that deceives them."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"Fortune converts everything to the advantage of her favorites."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"Funeral pomp is more for the vanity of the living than for the honor of the dead."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"Gracefulness is to the body what understanding is to the mind."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"Great souls are not those who have fewer passions and more virtues than others, but only those who have greater designs."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"He is not to pass for a man of reason who stumbles upon reason by chance but he who knows it and can judge it and has a true taste for it."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"He who lives without folly isn't so wise as he thinks."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"He who lives without folly is not so wise as he imagines."
by Francois De La Rochefoucauld
"Heat of blood makes young people change their inclinations often, and habit makes old ones keep to theirs a great while."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"How can we expect another to keep our secret if we have been unable to keep it ourselves?"
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"Hope, deceiving as it is, serves at least to lead us to the end of our lives by an agreeable route."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"How is it that we remember the least triviality that happens to us, and yet not remember how often we have recounted it to the same person?"
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"However greatly we distrust the sincerity of those we converse with, yet still we think they tell more truth to us than to anyone else."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"However glorious an action in itself, it ought not to pass for great if it be not the effect of wisdom and intention."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"Hypocrisy is the homage which vice pays to virtue."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"Hypocrisy is the homage vice pays to virtue."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"If there be a love pure and free from the admixture of our other passions, it is that which lies hidden in the bottom of our heart, and which we know not ourselves."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"If we judge love by most of its effects, it resembles rather hatred than affection."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"If we had no faults of our own, we would not take so much pleasure in noticing those of others."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"If we did not flatter ourselves, the flattery of others could never harm us."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"If we are to judge of love by its consequences, it more nearly resembles hatred than friendship."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"If we resist our passions, it is more due to their weakness than our strength."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"In love we often doubt what we most believe."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"In jealousy there is more of self-love, than of love to another."
by Francois De La Rochefoucauld
"In friendship as well as love, ignorance very often contributes more to our happiness than knowledge."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"In most of mankind gratitude is merely a secret hope of further favors."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"In the misfortunes of our best friends we always find something not altogether displeasing to us."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"In the human heart new passions are forever being born; the overthrow of one almost always means the rise of another."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"Innocence does not find near so much protection as guilt."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"It is almost always a fault of one who loves not to realize when he ceases to be loved."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"It is a great act of cleverness to be able to conceal one's being clever."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld


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