Quotes

“Passion makes idiots of the cleverest men, and makes the biggest idiots clever.” Francois de La Rochefoucauld

“The man that thinks he loves his mistress for her own sake is mightily mistaken.” Francois de La Rochefoucauld

“When we are in love we often doubt that which we most believe.” Francois de La Rochefoucauld

“All the passions make us commit faults; love makes us commit the most ridiculous ones.” Francois de La Rochefoucauld

“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.” Francois de La Rochefoucauld

“The more one loves a mistress, the more one is ready to hate her.” Francois de La Rochefoucauld

“It is almost always a fault of one who loves not to realize when he ceases to be loved.” Francois de La Rochefoucauld

“Before we set our hearts too much upon anything, let us examine how happy they are, who already possess it.” Francois de La Rochefoucauld

“I have always been an admirer. I regard the gift of admiration as indispensable if one is to amount to something; I don't know where I would be without it.” Francois de La Rochefoucauld

“There are bad people who would be less dangerous if they were quite devoid of goodness.” Francois de La Rochefoucauld

“Mediocre minds usually dismiss anything which reaches beyond their own understanding.” Francois de La Rochefoucauld

“If it were not for the company of fools, a witty man would often be greatly at a loss.” Francois de La Rochefoucauld

“Decency is the least of all laws, but yet it is the law which is most strictly observed.” Francois de La Rochefoucauld

“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

“A great many men's gratitude is nothing but a secret desire to hook in more valuable kindnesses hereafter.” Francois de La Rochefoucauld

“The force we use on ourselves, to prevent ourselves from loving, is often more cruel than the severest treatment at the hands of one loved.” Francois de La Rochefoucauld

“Perfect behavior is born of complete indifference.” Francois de La Rochefoucauld

“In love we often doubt what we most believe.” Francois de La Rochefoucauld

“The defects and faults of the mind are like wounds in the body; after all imaginable care has been taken to heal them up, still there will be a scar left behind, and they are in continual danger of breaking the skin and bursting out again.” Francois de La Rochefoucauld

“Politeness is a desire to be treated politely, and to be esteemed polite oneself.” Francois de La Rochefoucauld

“The mind cannot long play the heart's role.” Francois de La Rochefoucauld

“It is a great act of cleverness to be able to conceal one's being clever.” Francois de La Rochefoucauld

“In friendship as well as love, ignorance very often contributes more to our happiness than knowledge.” Francois de La Rochefoucauld

“A work can become modern only if it is first postmodern. Postmodernism thus understood is not modernism at its end but in the nascent state, and this state is constant.” Francois de La Rochefoucauld

“On neither the sun, nor death, can a man look fixedly.” Francois de La Rochefoucauld

“Nature seems at each man's birth to have marked out the bounds of his virtues and vices, and to have determined how good or how wicked that man shall be capable of being.” Francois de La Rochefoucauld

“No man deserves to be praised for his goodness, who has it not in his power to be wicked. Goodness without that power is generally nothing more than sloth, or an impotence of will.” Francois de La Rochefoucauld

“Everyone complains of his memory, and nobody complains of his judgment.” Francois de La Rochefoucauld

“Good advice is something a man gives when he is too old to set a bad example.” Francois de La Rochefoucauld

“No man is clever enough to know all the evil he does.” Francois de La Rochefoucauld