Francois Alexandre Frederic, duc de la Rochefoucauld-Liancourt Quotes

Most frequently we make confidants from vanity, a love of talking, a wish to win the confidence of others, and to make an exchange of secrets.

The disabusing a man strongly possessed with an opinion of his own worth is the very same ill office that was done to the fool at Athens, who fancied all the ships that came into the harbor were his own.

Nature seems to have treasured up the depth of our mind talents and abilities that we are not aware of; it is the privilege of the passions alone to bring them to light, and to direct us sometimes to surer and more excellent aims than conscious effort could.

The highest skill is the true judgment of values.

Deprived of the company of fools, a great wit does not seem half so clever.

However different men's fortunes may be, there is always something or other that balances the ill and the good, and makes all even at last.

The most trying fools are the bright ones.

What men have given the name of friendship to is nothing but an alliance, a reciprocal accommodation of interest, an exchange of good offices; in it is nothing but a system of traffic, in which self-love always proposes to itself some advantage.

The unbosoming oneself to another is a kind of release to the soul, which strives to lighten its burden and find ease by throwing off the weight that lay heavy upon it.

Young women that would not be thought coquettish, and old men that would not be ridiculous, should never talk of love, as if they had any concern in it.

Nothing is given so willingly as advice.

More things are left undone through neglect of duty than through neglect of self-interest.