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No man deserves to be praised for his goodness, who has it not in his power to be wicked. Goodness without that power is generally nothing more than sloth, or an impotence of will.

Francois de La Rochefoucauld
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Philosophy finds it an easy matter to vanquish past and future evils, but the present are commonly too hard for it.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
To know how to hide one's ability is great skill.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
We are so used to dissembling with others that in time we come to deceive and dissemble with ourselves.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Jealousy is bred in doubts. When those doubts change into certainties, then the passion either ceases or turns absolute madness.
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?
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
We often forgive those who bore us, but we cannot forgive those whom we bore.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Pride does not wish to owe and vanity does not wish to pay.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
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.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
People always complain about their memories, never about their minds.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
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.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Perfect valour consists in doing without witnesses that which we would be capable of doing before everyone.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
We always get bored with those whom we bore.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
The word virtue is as useful to self-interest as the vices.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
It is a great act of cleverness to be able to conceal one's being clever.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Neither the sun nor death can be looked at with a steady eye.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Few people have the wisdom to prefer the criticism that would do them good, to the praise that deceives them.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Pride, which inspires us with so much envy, is sometimes of use toward the moderating of it too.
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.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
People's personalities, like buildings, have various facades, some pleasant to view, some not.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
When our vices leave us, we like to imagine it is we who are leaving them.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Gracefulness is to the body what understanding is to the mind.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
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.
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
A man is sometimes as different from himself as he is from others.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
The virtues and vices are all put in motion by interest.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
It is easier to appear worthy of a position one does not hold, than of the office which one fills.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
The name and pretense of virtue is as serviceable to self-interest as are real vices.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
The reason that lovers never weary each other is because they are always talking about themselves.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
We have no patience with other people's vanity because it is offensive to our own.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
The intellect is always fooled by the heart.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
The principal point of cleverness is to know how to value things just as they deserve.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
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?
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
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.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
The mind is always the patsy of the heart.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
The heart is forever making the head its fool.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
We are more often treacherous through weakness than through calculation.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Jealousy springs more from love of self than from love of another.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
We may sooner be brought to love them that hate us, than them that love us more than we would have them do.
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
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.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
We all have enough strength to endure the misfortunes of others.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
We often pardon those that annoy us, but we cannot pardon those we annoy.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
If we resist our passions, it is more due to their weakness than our strength.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
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.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
It is often laziness and timidity that keep us within our duty while virtue gets all the credit.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
We are so accustomed to disguise ourselves to others that in the end we become disguised to ourselves.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
To achieve greatness one should live as if they will never die.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
We get so much in the habit of wearing disguises before others that we finally appear disguised before ourselves.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld