Francois De La Rochefoucauld

To know how to hide one's ability is great skill.

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

The height of ability consists in a thorough knowledge of the real value of things, and of the genius of the age in which we live.

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

Absence diminishes little passions and increases great ones, as wind extinguishes candles and fans a fire.

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

Our actions are like the terminations of verses, which we rhyme as we please.

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

We always love those who admire us; we do not always love those whom we admire.

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

We may give advice, but not the sense to use it.

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

Men give away nothing so liberally as their advice.

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

The one thing people are the most liberal with, is their advice.

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

We give advice, but we cannot give the wisdom to profit by it.

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

As one grows older, one becomes wiser and more foolish.

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

Few people know how to be old.

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

Old age is a tyrant, who forbids, under pain of death, the pleasures of youth.

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

Old men are fond of giving good advice to console themselves for their inability to give bad examples.

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

Old people love to give good advice to console themselves for no longer being able to set a bad example.

— 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.

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

We seldom find any person of good sense, except those who share our opinions.

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

Our desires always disappoint us; for though we meet with something that gives us satisfaction, yet it never thoroughly answers our expectation.

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

Nothing so much prevents our being natural as the desire to seem so.

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

To establish yourself in the world a person must do all they can to appear already established.

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

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

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

We like to see others, but don't like others to see through us.

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

Few persons have sufficient wisdom to prefer censure, which is useful, to praise which deceives them.

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

There is such a thing as a general revolution which changes the taste of men as it changes the fortunes of the world.

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

Weakness of character is the only defect which cannot be amended.

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

There are few virtuous women who are not bored with their trade.

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

The desire to seem clever often keeps us from being so.

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

It is great cleverness to know how to conceal our cleverness.

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

If it were not for the company of fools, a witty man would often be greatly at a loss.

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

Usually we praise only to be praised.

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

We only confess our little faults to persuade people that we have no big ones.

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

Silence is the safest course for any man to adopt who distrust himself.

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

When we cannot find contentment in ourselves, it is useless to seek it elsewhere.

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

We often forgive those who bore us, but we cannot forgive those whom we bore.

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

Conceit causes more conversation than wit.

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

Perfect courage is to do without witnesses what one would be capable of doing with the world looking on.

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

True bravery is shown by performing without witness what one might be capable of doing before all the world.

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

We can never be certain of our courage until we have faced danger.

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

There are crimes which become innocent and even glorious through their splendor, number and excess.

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

Neither the sun nor death can be looked at with a steady eye

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

Decency is the least of all laws, but yet it is the law which is most strictly observed.

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

The sure way to be cheated is to think one's self more cunning than others.

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

How ever a brilliant an action, it should not be viewed as great unless it is the result of a great motive.

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

We never desire strongly, what we desire rationally.

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

There are ways which lead to everything, and if we have sufficient will we should always have sufficient means.

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

To safeguard one's health at the cost of too strict a diet is a tiresome illness indeed.

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

We would rather speak badly of ourselves than not talk about ourselves at all.

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

True eloquence consists in saying all that should be said, and that only.

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

Our enemies come nearer the truth in the opinions they form of us than we do in our opinion of ourselves.

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

Our enemies approach nearer to truth in their judgments of us than we do ourselves.

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

The sure mark of one born with noble qualities is being born without envy.

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

It is not enough to succeed, others must fail.

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

Envy is more irreconcilable than hatred.

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

There is hardly a man clever enough to recognize the full extent of the evil he does.

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

We often do good in order that we may do evil with impunity.

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

Nothing is so contagious as an example. We never do great good or evil without bringing about more of the same on the part of others.

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

No persons are more frequently wrong, than those who will not admit they are wrong.

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

It is for want of application, rather than of means that people fail,

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

The fame of great men ought to be judged always by the means they used to acquire it.

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

We forget our faults easily when they are known to ourselves alone.

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

Only the great can afford to have great defects.

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

If we had no faults of our own, we should not take so much pleasure in noticing those in others.

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

It is only persons of firmness that can have real gentleness. Those who appear gentle are, in general, only a weak character, which easily changes into asperity.

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

Self-love is the greatest of all flatterers.

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

All women are flirts, but some are restrained by shyness, and others by sense.

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

He who lives without folly isn't so wise as he thinks.

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

We pardon to the extent that we love.

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

There is a kind of elevation which does not depend on fortune; it is a certain air which distinguishes us, and seems to destine us for great things; it is a price which we imperceptibly set upon ourselves.

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

It is more shameful to distrust our friends than to be deceived by them.

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

What men have called friendship is only a social arrangement, a mutual adjustment of interests, an interchange of services given and received; it is, in sum, simply a business from which those involved propose to derive a steady profit for their own self-love.

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

In the misfortunes of our best friends we always find something not altogether displeasing to us.

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

However rare true love may be, it is less so than true friendship.

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

A true friend is the greatest of all blessings, and that which we take the least care to acquire.

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

Funeral pomp is more for the vanity of the living than for the honor of the dead.

— 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.

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

What is called generosity is usually only the vanity of giving; we enjoy the vanity more than the thing given.

— 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.

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

There are few good women who do not tire of their role.

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

Gracefulness is to the body what understanding is to the mind.

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

We seldom find people ungrateful so long as it is thought we can serve them.

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

In most of mankind gratitude is merely a secret hope of further favors.

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

To achieve greatness one should live as if they will never die.

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

We are more interested in making others believe we are happy than in trying to be happy ourselves.

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

We are never so happy nor so unhappy as we imagine.

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

When our hatred is violent, it sinks us even beneath those we hate.

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

It is a wearisome disease to preserve health by too strict a regimen.

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

There are heroes in evil as well as in good.

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

Hope and fear are inseparable.

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

Hope is the last thing that dies in man; and though it be exceedingly deceitful, yet it is of this good use to us, that while we are traveling through life it conducts us in an easier and more pleasant way to our journey's end.

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

Humility is often a false front we employ to gain power over others.

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

The happiness or unhappiness of men depends as much on their humors as on fortune.

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

Fortune and humor govern the world.

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

Hypocrisy is the homage that vice pays to virtue.

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

The only good imitations are those that poke fun at bad originals.

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

There is only one kind of love, but there are a thousand imitations.

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

Too great a hurry to discharge an obligation is a kind of ingratitude.

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

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

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

It's easier to be wise for others than for ourselves.

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

The virtues and vices are all put in motion by interest.

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

In jealousy there is more of self-love than love.

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

Live on doubts; it becomes madness or stops entirely as soon as we pass from doubt to certainty.

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld