Francois de La Rochefoucauld

Many men are contemptuous of riches, few can give them away.

Hypocrisy is the homage vice pays to virtue.

The sure mark of one born with noble qualities is being born without envy.

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

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

Nothing is so contagious as example, and we never do any great good or evil which does not produce its like.

We all have enough strength to endure the misfortunes of others.

We confess our little faults to persuade people that we have no large ones.

The accent of a man's native country remains in his mind and his heart as it does in his speech.

We easily forgive our friends those faults that do no affect us ourselves.

Love often leads on to ambition but seldom does one return from ambition to love.

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.

Moderation is the feebleness and sloth of the soul whereas ambition is the warmth and activity of it.

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

Perfect behavior is born of complete indifference.

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

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

The intellect is always fooled by the heart.

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

We give advice but we cannot give the wisdom to profit by it.

Timidity is a fault for which it is dangerous to reprove persons whom we wish to correct of it.

If there be a love pure and free from the admixture of our other passions it is that which lies hidden in the bottom of our heart and which we know not ourselves.

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

When a man must force himself to be faithful in his love this is hardly better than unfaithfulness.

The heart is forever making the head its fool.

We do not praise others ordinarily but in order to be praised ourselves.

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

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

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

Only the contemptible fear contempt.

People that are conceited of their own merit take pride in being unfortunate that themselves and others may think them considerable enough to be the envy and the mark of fortune.

It is from a weakness and smallness of mind that men are opinionated, and we are very loath to believe what we are not able to comprehend.

The moderation of people in prosperity is the effect of a smooth and composed temper owing to the calm of their good fortune.

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

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

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

It is with true love as it is with ghosts, everyone talks about it but few have seen it.

How is it that we remember the least triviality that happens to us and yet not remember how often we have recounted it to the same person?

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

We are never so ridiculous through what we are as through what we pretend to be.

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

In all professions each affects a look and an exterior to appear what he wishes the world to believe that he is. Thus we may say that the whole world is made up of appearances.

Though nature be ever so generous yet can she not make a hero alone. Fortune must contribute her part too, and till both concur the work cannot be perfected.

We are so used to dissembling with others that in time we come to deceive and dissemble with ourselves.

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

In love we often doubt what we most believe.

Those who are incapable of committing great crimes do not readily suspect them in others.

A wise man thinks it more advantageous not to join the battle than to win.

We seldom praise anyone in good earnest except such as admire us.

Whatever good things people say of us they tell us nothing new.

The one thing people are the most liberal with is their advice.

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

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

We are easily comforted for the misfortunes of our friends when those misfortunes give us an occasion of expressing our affection and solicitude.

Heat of blood makes young people change their inclinations often and habit makes old ones keep to theirs a great while.

He is not to pass for a man of reason who stumbles upon reason by chance but he who knows it and can judge it and has a true taste for it.

Perfect valour consists in doing without witnesses that which we would be capable of doing before everyone.

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

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

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

The man that thinks he loves his mistress for her own sake is mightily mistaken.

One is never fortunate or as unfortunate as one imagines.