Francois de La Rochefoucauld Quotes

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

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

Absence diminishes mediocre passions and increases great ones,
as the wind extinguishes candles and fans fires.

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.

True love is like ghosts,
which everyone talks about and few have seen.

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.

To eat is a necessity,
but to eat intelligently is an art.

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

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

Nothing hinders a thing from being natural so much as the straining ourselves to make it seem so.

Marriage is the only war in which you sleep with the enemy.

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.

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.

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.

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

To listen closely and reply well is the highest perfection we are able to attain in the art of conversation.

If we are incapable of finding peace in ourselves,
it is pointless to search elsewhere.

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

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

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

There is no better proof of a man's being truly good than his desiring to be constantly under the observation of good men.

We promise according to our hopes and perform according to our fears.

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

Most of our faults are more pardonable than the means we use to conceal them.

We pardon to the extent that we love.

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.

The strongest symptom of wisdom in man is his being sensible of his own follies.

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

Old people love to give good advice;
it compensates them for their inability to set a bad example.

Self-love is the greatest of all flatterers.

Sometimes accidents happen in life from which we have need of a little madness to extricate ourselves successfully

The only thing constant in life is change

Those who occupy their minds with small matters,
generally become incapable of greatness.

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

Hypocrisy is the homage vice pays to virtue.

Moderation is an ostentatious proof of our strength of character.

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.

The man who leaves a woman best pleased with herself is the one whom she will soonest wish to see.

Our virtues are often,
in reality,
no better than vices disguised.

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

One forgives to the degree that one loves.

It is no tragedy to do ungrateful people favors,
but it is unbearable to be indebted to a scoundrel.

Cunning and treachery are the offspring of incapacity.

The only thing that should surprise us is that there are still some things that can surprise us.

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

Mediocre minds usually dismiss anything which reaches beyond their own understanding.

There is a kind of love,
the excess of which forbids jealousy.

Whatever ignominy or disgrace we have incurred,
it is almost always in our power to reestablish our reputation.

Our minds are lazier than our bodies.

It is sometimes necessary to play the fool to avoid being deceived by cunning men.