Francois de La Rochefoucauld

Philosophy finds it an easy matter to vanquish past and future evils, but the present are commonly too hard for it.

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

We are so used to dissembling with others that in time we come to deceive and dissemble with ourselves.

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?

Jealousy is bred in doubts. When those doubts change into certainties, then the passion either ceases or turns absolute madness.

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

Pride does not wish to owe and vanity does not wish to pay.

Most people know no other way of judging men's worth but by the vogue they are in, or the fortunes they have met with.

People always complain about their memories, never about their minds.

It is not in the power of even the most crafty dissimulation to conceal love long, where it really is, nor to counterfeit it long where it is not.

Perfect valour consists in doing without witnesses that which we would be capable of doing before everyone.

We always get bored with those whom we bore.

The word virtue is as useful to self-interest as the vices.

It is a great act of cleverness to be able to conceal one's being clever.

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

Few people have the wisdom to prefer the criticism that would do them good, to the praise that deceives them.

Pride, which inspires us with so much envy, is sometimes of use toward the moderating of it too.

Few things are impracticable in themselves; and it is for want of application, rather than of means, that men fail to succeed.

People's personalities, like buildings, have various facades, some pleasant to view, some not.

When our vices leave us, we like to imagine it is we who are leaving them.

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

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

Though men are apt to flatter and exalt themselves with their great achievements, yet these are, in truth, very often owing not so much to design as chance.

A man is sometimes as different from himself as he is from others.

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

The name and pretense of virtue is as serviceable to self-interest as are real vices.

The reason that lovers never weary each other is because they are always talking about themselves.

It is easier to appear worthy of a position one does not hold, than of the office which one fills.

The intellect is always fooled by the heart.

We have no patience with other people's vanity because it is offensive to our own.

The principal point of cleverness is to know how to value things just as they deserve.

Why is it that our memory is good enough to retain the least triviality that happens to us, and yet not good enough to recollect how often we have told it to the same person?

There are very few things impossible in themselves; and we do not want means to conquer difficulties so much as application and resolution in the use of means.

Jealousy springs more from love of self than from love of another.

The mind is always the patsy of the heart.

The heart is forever making the head its fool.

We are more often treacherous through weakness than through calculation.

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

We may sooner be brought to love them that hate us, than them that love us more than we would have them do.

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.

We all have enough strength to endure the misfortunes of others.

If we resist our passions, it is more due to their weakness than our strength.

We often pardon those that annoy us, but we cannot pardon those we annoy.

Our actions seem to have their lucky and unlucky stars, to which a great part of that blame and that commendation is due which is given to the actions themselves.

It is often laziness and timidity that keep us within our duty while virtue gets all the credit.

We are so accustomed to disguise ourselves to others that in the end we become disguised to ourselves.

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

We get so much in the habit of wearing disguises before others that we finally appear disguised before ourselves.

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

Some counterfeits reproduce so very well the truth that it would be a flaw of judgment not to be deceived by them.

Passion makes idiots of the cleverest men, and makes the biggest idiots clever.

There is nothing men are so generous of as advice.

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

We pardon to the extent that we love.

Only the contemptible fear contempt.

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

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

It is with an old love as it is with old age a man lives to all the miseries, but is dead to all the pleasures.

That good disposition which boasts of being most tender is often stifled by the least urging of self-interest.

If we judge love by most of its effects, it resembles rather hatred than affection.

Though nature be ever so generous, yet can she not make a hero alone. Fortune must contribute her part too; and till both concur, the work cannot be perfected.

What makes the pain we feel from shame and jealousy so cutting is that vanity can give us no assistance in bearing them.

We are easily comforted for the misfortunes of our friends, when those misfortunes give us an occasion of expressing our affection and solicitude.

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

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.

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 do not despise all those who have vices, but we do despise those that have no virtue.

Being a blockhead is sometimes the best security against being cheated by a man of wit.

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

You can find women who have never had an affair, but it is hard to find a woman who has had just one.

Confidence contributes more to conversation than wit.

We are very far from always knowing our own wishes.

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.

The accent of one's birthplace remains in the mind and in the heart as in one's speech.

How can we expect another to keep our secret if we have been unable to keep it ourselves?

When we are unable to find tranquility within ourselves, it is useless to seek it elsewhere.

Jealously is always born with love but it does not die with it.

Every one speaks well of his own heart, but no one dares speak well of his own mind.

It takes nearly as much ability to know how to profit by good advice as to know how to act for one's self.

It is from a weakness and smallness of mind that men are opinionated; and we are very loath to believe what we are not able to comprehend.

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

Too great haste to repay an obligation is a kind of ingratitude.

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

Ridicule dishonors a man more than dishonor does.

One forgives to the degree that one loves.

Perfect behavior is born of complete indifference.

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

We seldom praise anyone in good earnest, except such as admire us.

We easily forgive our friends those faults that do no affect us ourselves.

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

Taste may change, but inclination never.

Good advice is something a man gives when he is too old to set a bad example.

Gratitude is merely the secret hope of further favors.

When a man must force himself to be faithful in his love, this is hardly better than unfaithfulness.

Not all those who know their minds know their hearts as well.

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

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.

When a man is in love, he doubts, very often, what he most firmly believes.

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

The accent of a man's native country remains in his mind and his heart, as it does in his speech.