François de La Rochefoucauld

Find the best quotes, maxims and aphorisms of François de La Rochefoucauld

Biography : French moralist, author of maxims and memoirs.
Born: 1613 - Died: 1680
Period:
17th century
Place of birth: France
France

France

François de La Rochefoucauld - Quotes

The moderation of those who are happy arises from the calm which good fortune bestows upon their temper.
François de La Rochefoucauld - Reflections, or Sentences and Moral Maxims /

happiness

In the human heart there is a perpetual generation of passions; so that the ruin of one is almost always the foundation of another.
François de La Rochefoucauld - Reflections, or Sentences and Moral Maxims /

To know how to hide one's ability is great skill.
François de La Rochefoucauld - Reflections, or Sentences and Moral Maxims /

to hide

Too great haste to repay an obligation is a kind of ingratitude.
François de La Rochefoucauld - Reflections, or Sentences and Moral Maxims /

ingratitude

The same pride which makes us blame faults from which we believe ourselves free causes us to despise the good qualities we have not.
François de La Rochefoucauld - Reflections, or Sentences and Moral Maxims /

pride

The accent of a man’s native country remains in his mind and his heart, as it does in his speech.
François de La Rochefoucauld - Reflections, or Sentences and Moral Maxims /

Silence is the safest course for any man to adopt who distrusts himself.
François de La Rochefoucauld - Reflections, or Sentences and Moral Maxims /

No one can answer for his courage when he has never been in danger.
François de La Rochefoucauld - Reflections, or Sentences and Moral Maxims /

Perfect valour consists in doing without witnesses what one would be capable of doing before the world at large.
François de La Rochefoucauld - Reflections, or Sentences and Moral Maxims /

value

It is difficult to define love; all we can say is, that in the soul it is a desire to rule, in the mind it is a sympathy, and in the body it is a hidden and delicate wish to possess what we love—Plus many mysteries.
François de La Rochefoucauld - Reflections, or Sentences and Moral Maxims /

What grace is to the body good sense is to the mind.
François de La Rochefoucauld - Reflections, or Sentences and Moral Maxims /

A clever man ought to so regulate his interests that each will fall in due order. Our greediness so often troubles us, making us run after so many things at the same time, that while we too eagerly look after the least we miss the greatest.
François de La Rochefoucauld - Reflections, or Sentences and Moral Maxims /

There is no praise we have not lavished upon Prudence; and yet she cannot assure to us the most trifling event.
François de La Rochefoucauld - Reflections, or Sentences and Moral Maxims /

Prudence

The aversion to lying is often a hidden ambition to render our words credible and weighty, and to attach a religious aspect to our conversation.
François de La Rochefoucauld - Reflections, or Sentences and Moral Maxims /

lie

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.
François de La Rochefoucauld - Reflections, or Sentences and Moral Maxims /

trust

Fortune turns all things to the advantage of those on whom she smiles.
François de La Rochefoucauld - Reflections, or Sentences and Moral Maxims /

It would seem that our actions have lucky or unlucky stars to which they owe a great part of the blame or praise which is given them.
François de La Rochefoucauld - Reflections, or Sentences and Moral Maxims /

Although men flatter themselves with their great actions, they are not so often the result of a great design as of chance.
François de La Rochefoucauld - Reflections, or Sentences and Moral Maxims /

To establish ourselves in the world we do everything to appear as if we were established.
François de La Rochefoucauld - Reflections, or Sentences and Moral Maxims /

The hate of favourites is only a love of favour. The envy of NOT possessing it, consoles and softens its regrets by the contempt it evinces for those who possess it, and we refuse them our homage, not being able to detract from them what attracts that of the rest of the world.
François de La Rochefoucauld - Reflections, or Sentences and Moral Maxims /

Contempt

Whatever difference there appears in our fortunes, there is nevertheless a certain compensation of good and evil which renders them equal.
François de La Rochefoucauld - Reflections, or Sentences and Moral Maxims /

Nothing should so much diminish the satisfaction which we feel with ourselves as seeing that we disapprove at one time of that which we approve of at another.
François de La Rochefoucauld - Reflections, or Sentences and Moral Maxims /

Those who think they have merit persuade themselves that they are honoured by being unhappy, in order to persuade others and themselves that they are worthy to be the butt of fortune.
François de La Rochefoucauld - Reflections, or Sentences and Moral Maxims /

Happiness is in the taste, and not in the things themselves; we are happy from possessing what we like, not from possessing what others like.
François de La Rochefoucauld - Reflections, or Sentences and Moral Maxims /

The attachment or indifference which philosophers have shown to life is only the style of their self love, about which we can no more dispute than of that of the palate or of the choice of colours.
François de La Rochefoucauld - Reflections, or Sentences and Moral Maxims /

The caprice of our temper is even more whimsical than that of Fortune.
François de La Rochefoucauld - Reflections, or Sentences and Moral Maxims /

A man often believes himself leader when he is led; as his mind endeavours to reach one goal, his heart insensibly drags him towards another.
François de La Rochefoucauld - Reflections, or Sentences and Moral Maxims /

We have not enough strength to follow all our reason.
François de La Rochefoucauld - Reflections, or Sentences and Moral Maxims /

Interest blinds some and makes some see.
François de La Rochefoucauld - Reflections, or Sentences and Moral Maxims /

Pride has a larger part than goodness in our remonstrances with those who commit faults, and we reprove them not so much to correct as to persuade them that we ourselves are free from faults.
François de La Rochefoucauld - Reflections, or Sentences and Moral Maxims /

pride

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