French author (1613-1680)
It is our own vanity that makes the vanity of others intolerable to us.
FRANÇOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
Maxims
Before we passionately desire a thing, we should examine the happiness of its possessor.
FRANÇOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
Moral Maxims
We often glory in the most criminal passions; but envy is a shameful passion we never dare own.
FRANÇOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
Moral Maxims
Hypocrisy is the homage of vice to virtue.
FRANÇOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
Moral Maxims
However wicked men may be, they do not dare openly to appear the enemies of virtue, and when they desire to persecute her they either pretend to believe her false or attribute crimes to her.
FRANÇOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims
Passions often produce their contraries: avarice sometimes leads to prodigality, and prodigality to avarice; we are often obstinate through weakness and daring through timidity.
FRANÇOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims
A fool has not stuff enough to make a good man.
FRANÇOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
Moral Maxims
To be a great man one should know how to profit by every phase of fortune.
FRANÇOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims
Some weak people are sensible of their weakness and able to make good use of it.
FRANÇOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
Moral Maxims
We may appear great in an employment below our merit; but we often appear little in an employment that is too great for us.
FRANÇOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
Moral Maxims
Those who apply themselves too much to little things commonly become incapable of great ones.
FRANÇOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
Moral Maxims
Our enemies come nearer the truth in the opinions they form of us than we do in our opinion of ourselves.
FRANÇOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims
The surest way to be deceived is to think oneself more clever than others.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
Maxims
Those who have had great passions often find all their lives made miserable in being cured of them.
FRANÇOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims
Men are more satirical from vanity than from malice.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
Maxims
We sometimes condemn the present, by praising the past; and show our contempt of what is now, by our esteem for what is no more.
FRANÇOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
Moral Maxims
Sometimes we meet a fool with wit, never one with discretion.
FRANÇOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims
Philosophy triumphs easily over past evils and future evils; but present evils triumph over it.
FRANÇOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims
There are crimes which become innocent, and even glorious, through their splendor, number, and excess: Hence it is, that public theft is called Address, and to seize on Provinces unjustly, to make Conquests.
FRANÇOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
Moral Maxims
The dullness of certain people is sometimes a sufficient security against the attack of an artful man.
FRANÇOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
Moral Maxims