Quotes

“If we did not flatter ourselves, the flattery of others could never harm us.” Francois de La Rochefoucauld

“Some people displease with merit, and others' very faults and defects are pleasing.” Francois de La Rochefoucauld

“We are so used to dissembling with others that in time we come to deceive and dissemble with ourselves.” Francois de La Rochefoucauld

“We may sooner be brought to love them that hate us, than them that love us more than we would have them do.” Francois de La Rochefoucauld

“Our virtues are often, in reality, no better than vices disguised.” Francois de La Rochefoucauld

“There are very few things impossible in themselves; and we do not want means to conquer difficulties so much as application and resolution in the use of means.” Francois de La Rochefoucauld

“There is many a virtuous woman weary of her trade.” Francois de La Rochefoucauld

“However glorious an action in itself, it ought not to pass for great if it be not the effect of wisdom and intention.” Francois de La Rochefoucauld

“Nothing hinders a thing from being natural so much as the straining ourselves to make it seem so.” Francois de La Rochefoucauld

“Perfect courage is to do without witnesses what one would be capable of doing with the world looking on.” Francois de La Rochefoucauld

“Women's virtue is frequently nothing but a regard to their own quiet and a tenderness for their reputation.” Francois de La Rochefoucauld

“The greatest part of intimate confidences proceed from a desire either to be pitied or admired.” Francois de La Rochefoucauld

“Some accidents there are in life that a little folly is necessary to help us out of.” Francois de La Rochefoucauld

“Innocence does not find near so much protection as guilt.” Francois de La Rochefoucauld

“The accent of a man's native country remains in his mind and his heart, as it does in his speech.” Francois de La Rochefoucauld

“The surest way to be deceived is to consider oneself cleverer than others.” Francois de La Rochefoucauld

“We promise in proportion to our hopes, and we deliver in proportion to our fears.” Francois de La Rochefoucauld

“When a man must force himself to be faithful in his love, this is hardly better than unfaithfulness.” Francois de La Rochefoucauld

“When a man is in love, he doubts, very often, what he most firmly believes.” Francois de La Rochefoucauld

“Many men are contemptuous of riches; few can give them away.” Francois de La Rochefoucauld

“We are never so ridiculous through what we are as through what we pretend to be.” Francois de La Rochefoucauld

“That good disposition which boasts of being most tender is often stifled by the least urging of self-interest.” Francois de La Rochefoucauld

“We seldom praise anyone in good earnest, except such as admire us.” Francois de La Rochefoucauld

“Philosophy finds it an easy matter to vanquish past and future evils, but the present are commonly too hard for it.” Francois de La Rochefoucauld

“We may seem great in an employment below our worth, but we very often look little in one that is too big for us.” Francois de La Rochefoucauld

“Self-interest makes some people blind, and others sharp-sighted.” Francois de La Rochefoucauld

“Some counterfeits reproduce so very well the truth that it would be a flaw of judgment not to be deceived by them.” Francois de La Rochefoucauld

“We are very far from always knowing our own wishes.” Francois de La Rochefoucauld

“Pride, which inspires us with so much envy, is sometimes of use toward the moderating of it too.” Francois de La Rochefoucauld

“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.” Francois de La Rochefoucauld