Francois de La Rochefoucauld's Quotes

Perfect behavior is born of complete indifference.

The intellect is always fooled by the heart.

Not all those who know their minds know their hearts as well.

The surest way to be deceived is to consider oneself cleverer than others.

If we had no faults of our own, we should not take so much pleasure in noticing those in others.

It is often laziness and timidity that keep us within our duty while virtue gets all the credit.

The principal point of cleverness is to know how to value things just as they deserve.

Gratitude is merely the secret hope of further favors.

If we are to judge of love by its consequences, it more nearly resembles hatred than friendship.

It is almost always a fault of one who loves not to realize when he ceases to be loved.

A refusal of praise is a desire to be praised twice.

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.

Never give anyone the advice to buy or sell shares, because the most benevolent price of advice can turn out badly.

The happiness and misery of men depend no less on temper than fortune.

We promise in proportion to our hopes, and we deliver in proportion to our fears.

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

However greatly we distrust the sincerity of those we converse with, yet still we think they tell more truth to us than to anyone else.

It is not enough to have great qualities; We should also have the management of them.

People always complain about their memories, never about their minds.

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

Virtue would go far if vanity did not keep it company.

We have no patience with other people's vanity because it is offensive to our own.

You can find women who have never had an affair, but it is hard to find a woman who has had just one.

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

If it were not for the company of fools, a witty man would often be greatly at a loss.

It is easier to appear worthy of a position one does not hold, than of the office which one fills.

Men often pass from love to ambition, but they seldom come back again from ambition to love.

Repentance is not so much remorse for what we have done as the fear of the consequences.

The desire of talking of ourselves, and showing those faults we do not mind having seen, makes up a good part of our sincerity.

The reason why so few people are agreeable in conversation is that each is thinking more about what he intends to say than others are saying.

There are few virtuous women who are not bored with their trade.

We would frequently be ashamed of our good deeds if people saw all of the motives that produced them.

A great many men's gratitude is nothing but a secret desire to hook in more valuable kindnesses hereafter.

Innocence does not find near so much protection as guilt.

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

Silence is the safest course for any man to adopt who distrust himself.

We often forgive those who bore us, but we cannot forgive those whom we bore.

Before we set our hearts too much upon anything, let us examine how happy they are, who already possess it.

Being a blockhead is sometimes the best security against being cheated by a man of wit.

Everyone complains of his memory, and nobody complains of his judgment.

However glorious an action in itself, it ought not to pass for great if it be not the effect of wisdom and intention.

In friendship as well as love, ignorance very often contributes more to our happiness than knowledge.

No man is clever enough to know all the evil he does.

The sure way to be cheated is to think one's self more cunning than others.

They that apply themselves to trifling matters commonly become incapable of great ones.

We always get bored with those whom we bore.

When a man is in love, he doubts, very often, what he most firmly believes.

Politeness is a desire to be treated politely, and to be esteemed polite oneself.

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 get so much in the habit of wearing disguises before others that we finally appear disguised before ourselves.

Gracefulness is to the body what understanding is to the mind.

If we did not flatter ourselves, the flattery of others could never harm us.

In the misfortunes of our best friends we always find something not altogether displeasing to us.

The mind cannot long play the heart's role.

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

Weakness of character is the only defect which cannot be amended.

It's the height of folly to want to be the only wise one.

We are very far from always knowing our own wishes.

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

Hope, deceiving as it is, serves at least to lead us to the end of our lives by an agreeable route.

How can we expect another to keep our secret if we have been unable to keep it ourselves?

Pride does not wish to owe and vanity does not wish to pay.

We come altogether fresh and raw into the several stages of life, and often find ourselves without experience, despite our years.

We say little, when vanity does not make us speak.

On neither the sun, nor death, can a man look fixedly.

Some counterfeits reproduce so very well the truth that it would be a flaw of judgment not to be deceived by them.

Why is it that our memory is good enough to retain the least triviality that happens to us, and yet not good enough to recollect how often we have told it to the same person?

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

Some accidents there are in life that a little folly is necessary to help us out of.

The desire to seem clever often keeps us from being so.

There is a kind of elevation which does not depend on fortune; it is a certain air which distinguishes us, and seems to destine us for great things; it is a price which we imperceptibly set upon ourselves.

If we have not peace within ourselves, it is in vain to seek it from outward sources.

Only the contemptible fear contempt.

Perfect courage is to do without witnesses what one would be capable of doing with the world looking on.

There are but very few men clever enough to know all the mischief they do.

We always love those who admire us, but we do not always love those whom we admire.

There are various sorts of curiosity; one is from interest, which makes us desire to know that which may be useful to us; and the other, from pride which comes from the wish to know what others are ignorant of.