1.
Good advice is something a man gives when he is too old to set a bad example.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Wise counsel is something a man proffers when his age prevents him from demonstrating improper behaviour.
2.
All women are flirts,
but some are restrained by shyness,
and others by sense.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
3.
Absence diminishes mediocre passions and increases great ones,
as the wind extinguishes candles and fans fires.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
4.
The passions are the only orators that always persuade: they are,
as it were,
a natural art,
the rules of which are infallible;
and the simplest man with passion is more persuasive than the most eloquent without it.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
5.
True love is like ghosts,
which everyone talks about and few have seen.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
6.
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.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
7.
To eat is a necessity,
but to eat intelligently is an art.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
8.
When we are unable to find tranquility within ourselves,
it is useless to seek it elsewhere.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
9.
There is only one kind of love,
but there are a thousand imitations.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
10.
Nothing hinders a thing from being natural so much as the straining ourselves to make it seem so.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
11.
Marriage is the only war in which you sleep with the enemy.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
12.
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
13.
There are no accidents so unlucky from which clever people are not able to reap some advantage,
and none so lucky that the foolish are not able to turn them to their own disadvantage.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
14.
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
15.
The accent of one's birthplace remains in the mind and in the heart as in one's speech.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
16.
To listen closely and reply well is the highest perfection we are able to attain in the art of conversation.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
17.
If we are incapable of finding peace in ourselves,
it is pointless to search elsewhere.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
18.
Decency is the least of all laws,
but yet it is the law which is most strictly observed.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
19.
Few people have the wisdom to prefer the criticism that would do them good,
to the praise that deceives them.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
20.
No persons are more frequently wrong,
than those who will not admit they are wrong.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
21.
There is no better proof of a man's being truly good than his desiring to be constantly under the observation of good men.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
22.
We promise according to our hopes and perform according to our fears.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
23.
People's personalities,
like buildings,
have various facades,
some pleasant to view,
some not.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
24.
Most of our faults are more pardonable than the means we use to conceal them.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
25.
We pardon to the extent that we love.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
26.
Sincerity is an openness of heart;
we find it in very few people;
what we usually see is only an artful dissimulation to win the confidence of others.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
27.
The strongest symptom of wisdom in man is his being sensible of his own follies.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
28.
A true friend is the greatest of all blessings,
and that which we take the least care of all to acquire.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
29.
Old people love to give good advice;
it compensates them for their inability to set a bad example.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
30.
Self-love is the greatest of all flatterers.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
31.
Sometimes accidents happen in life from which we have need of a little madness to extricate ourselves successfully
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
32.
The only thing constant in life is change
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
33.
Those who occupy their minds with small matters,
generally become incapable of greatness.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
34.
To achieve greatness one should live as if they will never die.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
35.
Hypocrisy is the homage vice pays to virtue.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
36.
Moderation is an ostentatious proof of our strength of character.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
37.
Humility is often only feigned submission which people use to render others submissive.
It is a subterfuge of pride which lowers itself in order to rise.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
38.
The man who leaves a woman best pleased with herself is the one whom she will soonest wish to see.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
39.
Our virtues are often,
in reality,
no better than vices disguised.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
40.
We can never be certain of our courage until we have faced danger.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
41.
One forgives to the degree that one loves.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
42.
It is no tragedy to do ungrateful people favors,
but it is unbearable to be indebted to a scoundrel.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
43.
Cunning and treachery are the offspring of incapacity.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
44.
The only thing that should surprise us is that there are still some things that can surprise us.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
45.
We are more interested in making others believe we are happy than in trying to be happy ourselves.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
46.
Mediocre minds usually dismiss anything which reaches beyond their own understanding.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
47.
There is a kind of love,
the excess of which forbids jealousy.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
48.
Whatever ignominy or disgrace we have incurred,
it is almost always in our power to reestablish our reputation.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
49.
Our minds are lazier than our bodies.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
50.
It is sometimes necessary to play the fool to avoid being deceived by cunning men.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
