Top 100 Francois De La Rochefoucauld Quotes
#1. In all aspects of life, we take on a part and an appearance to seem to be what we wish to be
and thus the world is merely composed of actors.
Francois De La Rochefoucauld
#2. Those who are overreached by our cunning are far from appearing to us as ridiculous as we appear to ourselves when the cunning of others has overreached us.
Francois De La Rochefoucauld
#5. We often boast that we are never bored; but yet we are so conceited that we do not perceive how often we bore others.
Francois De La Rochefoucauld
#9. The truest comparison we can make of love is to liken it to a fever; we have no more power over the one than the other, either as to its violence or duration.
Francois De La Rochefoucauld
#16. A man often believes himself leader when he is led; as his mind endeavors to reach one goal, his heart insensibly drags him towards another.
Francois De La Rochefoucauld
#17. As great minds have the faculty of saying a great deal in a few words, so lesser minds have a talent of talking much, and saying nothing.
Francois De La Rochefoucauld
#18. When we seek reconciliation with our enemies, it is commonly out of a desire to better our own condition, a being harassed and tired out with a state of war, and a fear of some ill accident which we are willing to prevent.
Francois De La Rochefoucauld
#20. The height of ability consists in a thorough knowledge of the real value of things, and of the genius of the age in which we live.
Francois De La Rochefoucauld
#27. Sincerity is a certain openness of heart. It is to be found in very few, and what we commonly look upon to be so is only a cunningsort of dissimulation, to insinuate ourselves into the confidence of others.
Francois De La Rochefoucauld
#28. We should often feel ashamed of our best actions if the world could see all the motives which produced them.
Francois De La Rochefoucauld
#30. He who lives without committing any folly is not so wise as he thinks.
[Fr., Qui vit sans folie n'est pas si sage qu'il croit.]
Francois De La Rochefoucauld
#36. In the presence of some people we inevitably depart From ourselves: we are inaccurate, we say things we do not feel, And talk nonsense. When we get home we are conscious that we Have made fools of ourselves. Never go near these people.
Francois De La Rochefoucauld
#40. Humility is often only a feigned submissiveness by which men hope to bring other people to submit to them; it is a more calculated sort of pride.
Francois De La Rochefoucauld
#43. Absense diminishes small loves and increases great ones, as the wind blows out the candle and blows up the bonfire.
Francois De La Rochefoucauld
#46. The extreme pleasure we take in speaking of ourselves should make us apprehensive that it gives hardly any to those who listen to us.
Francois De La Rochefoucauld
#48. 433. - The most certain sign of being born with great qualities is to be born without envy. ["Nemo alienae virtuti invidet qui satis confidet suae." - Cicero In Marc Ant.]
Francois De La Rochefoucauld
#50. Absence cools moderate passions, and inflames violent ones; just as the wind blows out candles, but kindles fires.
Francois De La Rochefoucauld
#51. Familiarity is a suspension of almost all the laws of civility, which libertinism has introduced into society under the notion of ease.
Francois De La Rochefoucauld
#53. Listening well and answering well is one of the greatest perfections that can be obtained in conversation.
Francois De La Rochefoucauld
#55. Love of fame, fear of disgrace, schemes for advancement, desire to make life comfortable and pleasant, and the urge to humiliate others are often at the root of the valour men hold in such high esteem.
Francois De La Rochefoucauld
#56. Eloquence resides as much in the tone of voice, in the eyes, and in the expression of the face, as in the choice of words.
Francois De La Rochefoucauld
#58. A certain harmony should be kept between actions and ideas if we want to fully develop the effects they can produce.
Francois De La Rochefoucauld
#59. Things often offer themselves to our mind in a more finished form in the very first thought, than we might have made them by muchart and study.
Francois De La Rochefoucauld
#62. Heat of blood makes young people change their inclinations often, and habit makes old ones keep to theirs a great while.
Francois De La Rochefoucauld
#63. A lofty mind always thinks nobly, it easily creates vivid, agreeable, and natural fancies, places them in their best light, clothes them with all appropriate adornments, studies others' tastes, and clears away from its own thoughts all that is useless and disagreeable.
Francois De La Rochefoucauld
#64. There are people who in spite of their merit disgust us and others who please us in spite of their faults.
Francois De La Rochefoucauld
#67. It is not expedient or wise to examine our friends too closely; few persons are raised in our esteem by a close examination.
Francois De La Rochefoucauld
#68. The only real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes. The glory of great men should always be measured by the means they have used to acpuire it.
Francois De La Rochefoucauld
#69. Clemency, which we make a virtue of, proceeds sometimes from vanity, sometimes from indolence, often from fear, and almost always from a mixture of all three.
Francois De La Rochefoucauld
#73. Old people are fond of giving good advice; it consoles them for no longer being capable of setting a bad example.
Francois De La Rochefoucauld
#76. However evil men may be they dare not be openly hostile to virtue, and so when they want to attack it they pretend to find it spurious , or impute crimes to it.
Francois De La Rochefoucauld
#81. Most women lament not the death of their lovers so much out of real affection for them, as because they would appear worthy of love.
Francois De La Rochefoucauld
#83. Few things are needed to make a wise man happy; nothing can make a fool content; that is why most men are miserable.
Francois De La Rochefoucauld
#91. The contempt of riches in the philosophers was a concealed desire of revenging on fortune the injustice done to their merit, by despising the good she denied them.
Francois De La Rochefoucauld
#94. What seems to be generosity is often no more than disguised ambition, which overlooks a small interest in order to secure a great one.
Francois De La Rochefoucauld
#95. We sometimes think that we hate flattery, but we only hate the manner in which it is done.
[Fr., On croit quelquefoir hair la flatterie; maid on ne hait que a maniere de flatter.]
Francois De La Rochefoucauld
#96. There are a great many simpletons who know themselves to be so, and who make a very cunning use of their own simplicity.
Francois De La Rochefoucauld