Francois De La Rochefoucauld Quotes

Absence diminishes small loves and increases great ones, as the wind blows out the candle and fans the bonfire.

It is easier to be wise for others than for ourselves.

One cannot answer for his courage when he has never been in danger.

The height of cleverness is to be able to conceal it.

We rarely think people have good sense unless they agree with us.

Hypocrisy is a tribute that vice pays to virtue.

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

The truest way to be deceived is to think oneself more knowing than others.

Thinkers think and doers do. But until the thinkers do and the doers think, progress will be just another word in the already overburdened vocabulary by sense.

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

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

We would often be ashamed of our best actions if the world only knew the motives behind them.

Listening well and answering well is one of the greatest perfections that can be obtained in conversation.

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

We forgive so long as we love.

Passion often makes fools of the wisest men and gives the silliest wisdom.

Extreme boredom provides its own antidote.

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

Our virtues are most frequently but vices disguised.

357.—Little minds are too much wounded by little things; great minds see all and are not even hurt.

Our enemies come nearer the truth in the opinions they form of us than we do in our opinion of ourselves.

Jealousy is always born with love but it does not die with it.” ~Francois de La Rochefoucauld

There is only one kind of love, but there are a thousand different versions.

It is no tragedy to do ungrateful people favors, but it is unbearable to be indebted to a scoundrel.

It is a great ability to be able to conceal one's ability.

How comes it that our memories are good enough to retain even the minutest details of what has befallen us, but not to recollect how many times we have recounted to the same person?

How 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? ~François Duc de La Rochefoucauld

Nothing so much prevents our being natural as the desire to seem so.

Virtues are lost in self interest as rivers are lost in the sea.

There are bad people who would be less dangerous if they were quite devoid of goodness.

433.—The most certain sign of being born with great qualities is to be born without envy. ["Nemo alienae virtuti invidet qui satis confidet suae." —Cicero In Marc Ant.]

The reason why so few persons are agreeable in conversation is that each thinks more of what he desires to say, than of what the others say, and that we make bad listeners when we want to speak.

248.—Magnanimity despises all, to win all.

It is far easier to be wise for others than to be so for oneself.

Nobody deserves to be praised for goodness unless he is strong enough to be bad, for any other goodness is usually merely inertia or lack of will-power

However we distrust the sincerity of those whom we talk with, we always believe them more sincere with us than with others.

Too great haste to repay an obligation is a kind of ingratitude.

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

Few are sufficiently wise to prefer censure which is useful to praise which is treacherous.

We may forgive those who bore us, we cannot forgive those whom we bore.

Si nous n'avions point de défauts, nous ne prendrions pas tant de plaisir à en remarquer dans les autres.

Si nous n'avions point d'orgueil, nous ne nous plaindrions pas de celui des autres.

The moderation of fortunate people comes from the calm which good fortune gives to their tempers.

Absence diminishes mediocre passions and increases great ones, as the wind extinguishes candles and fans fires."  -Francois de La Rochefoucauld

Virtue would go far if vanity did not keep it company. Francois de La Rochefoucauld

Fortune appears so blind to none as to those to whom she has done no good.

Il faut écouter ceux qui parlent, si on veut en être écouté.

Judi kadang-kadang dapat menguntungkan, tetapi berjudi terus-menerus pasti akan membawa kerugian.

We have few faults which are not far more excusable than the means we adopt to hide them.

We should earnestly desire but few things if we clearly knew what we desired.

Le mal que nous faisons ne nous attire pas tant de persécution et de haine que nos bonnes qualités.

Ceux qui s'appliquent trop aux petites choses deviennent ordinairement incapables des grandes.

L'intérêt, qui aveugle les uns, fait la lumière des autres.

La philosophie triomphe aisément des maux passés et des maux à venir. Mais les maux présents triomphent d'elle.

L'intérêt parle toutes sortes de langues, et joue toutes sortes de personnages, même celui de désintéressé.

L’extrême plaisir que nous prenons à parler de nous-mêmes nous doit faire craindre de n’en donner guere à ceux qui nous écoutent.

Taruhan yang paling aman adalah tidak pernah bertaruh

Taruhan yang paling aman adalah tidak pernah bertaruh.

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

We should observe the place, the occasion, the temper in which we find the person who listens to us, for if there is much art in speaking to the purpose, there is no less in knowing when to be silent.

Man is so wretched that, while he shapes all of his conduct to gratify his passions, he groans incessantly under their tyranny. He can endure neither their violence, nor the violence that he would have to inflict on himself in order to rid himself of their yoke. He is frustrated not only by his vices, but also by the things that would cure them; and he cannot come to terms either with the discomfort of his afflictions or with the task of curing himself.

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

The French thinker Francois de La Rochefoucauld proclaimed: “Hypocrisy is the tribute vice pays to virtue.”7 If the Rule of Law sometimes produces hypocrisy, at least we know what counts as vice and what counts as virtue.