Francois de La Rochefoucauld famous quotes

All women are flirts, but some are restrained by shyness, and others by sense.
-- Francois de La Rochefoucauld

#Flirty #Flirting #Shyness

If we are incapable of finding peace in ourselves, it is pointless to search elsewhere.
-- Francois de La Rochefoucauld

#Relationship #Finding Peace #Elsewhere

There is no better proof of a man's being truly good than his desiring to be constantly under the observation of good men.
-- Francois de La Rochefoucauld

#Men #Good Man #Proof

To eat is a necessity, but to eat intelligently is an art.
-- Francois de La Rochefoucauld

#Fitness #Art #Food

To achieve greatness one should live as if they will never die.
-- Francois de La Rochefoucauld

#Greatness #Achieve #Should

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

#Love #Romantic #I Miss You

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

#Self #People #Blind

It is easier to be wise for others than for ourselves.
-- Francois de La Rochefoucauld

#Inspirational #Wise #Wisdom

It is with true love as it is with ghosts; everyone talks about it, but few have seen it.
-- Francois de La Rochefoucauld

#Love #True Love #Cheesy Love

There is only one kind of love, but there are a thousand imitations.
-- Francois de La Rochefoucauld

#Love #Kind #Imitation

The height of cleverness is to be able to conceal it.
-- Francois de La Rochefoucauld

#Work #Height #Able

One cannot answer for his courage when he has never been in danger.
-- Francois de La Rochefoucauld

#Life #Courage #Cynical

A refusal of praise is a desire to be praised twice.
-- Francois de La Rochefoucauld

#Workout #Desire #Praise

Jealousy springs more from love of self than from love of another.
-- Francois de La Rochefoucauld

#Jealousy #Spring #Self

As one grows older, one becomes wiser and more foolish.
-- Francois de La Rochefoucauld

#Time #Silly #Age

We can never be certain of our courage until we have faced danger....
-- Francois de La Rochefoucauld

#Courage #Danger #Certain

No persons are more frequently wrong, than those who will not admit they are wrong.
-- Francois de La Rochefoucauld

#Life #Relationship #Cynical

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.
-- Francois de La Rochefoucauld

#Hero #Fortune #Generous

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

#Ambition #Order #Generosity

It is easier to appear worthy of a position one does not hold, than of the office which one fills.
-- Francois de La Rochefoucauld

#Work #Office #Doe

When we are unable to find tranquility within ourselves, it is useless to seek it elsewhere.
-- Francois de La Rochefoucauld

#Inspirational #Single #Peace

We are sometimes as different from ourselves as we are from others.
-- Francois de La Rochefoucauld

#Growth #Different #Personal Growth

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

#Men #Thinking #Mistress

However rare true love may be, it is less so than true friendship.
-- Francois de La Rochefoucauld

#Love #Friendship #Patience

He who lives without folly isn't so wise as he thinks.
-- Francois de La Rochefoucauld

#Life #Wise #Thinking

We always love those who admire us, but we do not always love those whom we admire.
-- Francois de La Rochefoucauld

#Love #Admiration #Admire

As it is the characteristic of great wits to say much in few words, so small wits seem to have the gift of speaking much and saying nothing.
-- Francois de La Rochefoucauld

#Wisdom #Saying Nothing #Few Words

We often pay our debts not because it is only fair that we should, but to make future loans easier.
-- Francois de La Rochefoucauld

#Debt #Pay #Loan

Chance corrects us of many faults that reason would not know how to correct.
-- Francois de La Rochefoucauld

#Luck #Faults #Chance

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

#Law #Decency

Silence is the safest course for any man to adopt who distrust himself.
-- Francois de La Rochefoucauld

#Confidence #Men #Silence

We always get bored with those whom we bore.
-- Francois de La Rochefoucauld

#Bored #Bores

If we are to judge of love by its consequences, it more nearly resembles hatred than friendship.
-- Francois de La Rochefoucauld

#Love #Friendship #Broken Heart

A certain harmony should be kept between actions and ideas if we want to fully develop the effects they can produce.
-- Francois de La Rochefoucauld

#Ideas #Want #Action

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

#Inspirational #Funny #Birthday

The strongest symptom of wisdom in man is his being sensible of his own follies.
-- Francois de La Rochefoucauld

#Wisdom #Men #Symptoms

True eloquence consists in saying all that should be said, and that only.
-- Francois de La Rochefoucauld

#Sports #Psychology #Said

I always say to myself, what is the most important thing we can think about at this extraordinary moment.
-- Francois de La Rochefoucauld

#Gratitude #Thinking #Important

One forgives to the degree that one loves.
-- Francois de La Rochefoucauld

#Valentines Day #Forgiveness #Life Changing

Preserving health by too severe a rule is a worrisome malady.
-- Francois de La Rochefoucauld

#Health

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

#Understanding #Mind #Atheism

Few people have the wisdom to prefer the criticism that would do them good, to the praise that deceives them.
-- Francois de La Rochefoucauld

#Wisdom #People #Criticism

Jealousy is bred in doubts. When those doubts change into certainties, then the passion either ceases or turns absolute madness.
-- Francois de La Rochefoucauld

#Jealousy #Passion #Doubt

One can find women who have never had one love affair, but it is rare indeed to find any who have had only one.
-- Francois de La Rochefoucauld

#Love #Relationship #Affair

A true friend is the greatest of all blessings, and that which we take the least care of all to acquire.
-- Francois de La Rochefoucauld

#Cute #Friendship #Thankful

Jealousy lives upon doubts. It becomes madness or ceases entirely as soon as we pass from doubt to certainty.
-- Francois de La Rochefoucauld

#Jealousy #Doubt #Madness

True love is like ghosts, which everyone talks about and few have seen.
-- Francois de La Rochefoucauld

#Love #Life #Sex

There is no disguise which can hide love for long where it exists, or simulate it where it does not.
-- Francois de La Rochefoucauld

#Love #Inspirational #Long

Hypocrisy is the homage vice pays to virtue.
-- Francois de La Rochefoucauld

#Integrity #Hypocrisy #Identity

As great minds have the faculty of saying a great deal in a few words, so lesser minds have a talent of talking much, and saying nothing.
-- Francois de La Rochefoucauld

#Talking #Mind #Saying Nothing

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

#Clever #Passion #Men

Nothing is impossible; there are ways that lead to everything, and if we had sufficient will we should always have sufficient means. It is often merely for an excuse that we say things are impossible.
-- Francois de La Rochefoucauld

#Motivational #Uplifting #Failure

The only thing constant in life is change
-- Francois de La Rochefoucauld

#Life #Motivational #Change

We are so accustomed to disguise ourselves to others that in the end we become disguised to ourselves.
-- Francois de La Rochefoucauld

#Im Sorry #Being Yourself #Work

We seldom find people ungrateful so long as it is thought we can serve them.
-- Francois de La Rochefoucauld

#Long #People #Ungrateful

Marriage is the only war in which you sleep with the enemy.
-- Francois de La Rochefoucauld

#Funny #Marriage #Witty

We rarely think people have good sense unless they agree with us.
-- Francois de La Rochefoucauld

#Thinking #People #Agree

We are more interested in making others believe we are happy than in trying to be happy ourselves.
-- Francois de La Rochefoucauld

#Happiness #Believe #Inner Peace

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

#Love #Ignorance #Wells

The sure mark of one born with noble qualities is being born without envy.
-- Francois de La Rochefoucauld

#Jealousy #Envy #Quality

The only thing that should surprise us is that there are still some things that can surprise us.
-- Francois de La Rochefoucauld

#Surprise #Should #Stills

We have no patience with other people's vanity because it is offensive to our own.
-- Francois de La Rochefoucauld

#Patience #Vanity #People

The old begin to complain of the conduct of the young when they themselves are no longer able to set a bad example.
-- Francois de La Rochefoucauld

#Example #Complaining #Able

Humility is often a false front we employ to gain power over others.
-- Francois de La Rochefoucauld

#Humility #Gains

We often forgive those who bore us, but we cannot forgive those whom we bore.
-- Francois de La Rochefoucauld

#Forgiving #Bores

Hope is the last thing that dies in man; and though it be exceedingly deceitful, yet it is of this good use to us, that while we are traveling through life it conducts us in an easier and more pleasant way to our journey's end.
-- Francois de La Rochefoucauld

#Hope #Journey #Men

A man's happiness or unhappiness depends as much on his temperament as on his destiny.
-- Francois de La Rochefoucauld

#Destiny #Men #Unhappiness

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

#Desire #Politeness #Treated

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

#Clever #Silly #Men

A clever man reaps some benefit from the worst catastrophe, and a fool can turn even good luck to his disadvantage.
-- Francois de La Rochefoucauld

#Clever #Good Luck #Men

There are but very few men clever enough to know all the mischief they do.
-- Francois de La Rochefoucauld

#Clever #Men #Enough

What is called generosity is usually only the vanity of giving; we enjoy the vanity more than the thing given.
-- Francois de La Rochefoucauld

#Vanity #Generosity #Giving

A wise man thinks it more advantageous not to join the battle than to win.
-- Francois de La Rochefoucauld

#Wise #Winning #Men

There is a kind of elevation which does not depend on fortune; it is a certain air which distinguishes us, and seems to destine us for great things; it is a price which we imperceptibly set upon ourselves.
-- Francois de La Rochefoucauld

#Air #Doe #Kind

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.
-- Francois de La Rochefoucauld

#Pride #Curiosity #Ignorant

It is more often from pride than from ignorance that we are so obstinately opposed to current opinions; we find the first places taken, and we do not want to be the last.
-- Francois de La Rochefoucauld

#Taken #Ignorance #Pride

Pride does not wish to owe and vanity does not wish to pay.
-- Francois de La Rochefoucauld

#Pride #Vanity #Wish

We promise according to our hopes and perform according to our fears.
-- Francois de La Rochefoucauld

#Hope #Fear #Commitment

How can we expect another to keep our secret if we have been unable to keep it ourselves?
-- Francois de La Rochefoucauld

#Secret

To listen closely and reply well is the highest perfection we are able to attain in the art of conversation.
-- Francois de La Rochefoucauld

#Art #Educational #Perfection

Nothing is so contagious as example; and we never do any great good or evil which does not produce its like.
-- Francois de La Rochefoucauld

#Volunteer #Evil #Example

Taste may change, but inclination never.
-- Francois de La Rochefoucauld

#May #Taste

It's the height of folly to want to be the only wise one.
-- Francois de La Rochefoucauld

#Wise #Wisdom #Want

One is never fortunate or as unfortunate as one imagines.
-- Francois de La Rochefoucauld

#Imagine #Unfortunate

It is often merely for an excuse that we say things are impossible.
-- Francois de La Rochefoucauld

#Positive Thinking #Thinking #Impossible

We always like those who admire us.
-- Francois de La Rochefoucauld

#Admiration #Admire

When we disclaim praise, it is only showing our desire to be praised a second time.
-- Francois de La Rochefoucauld

#Time #Desire #Praise

We are more often treacherous through weakness than through calculation.
-- Francois de La Rochefoucauld

#Philosophy #Philosophical #Weakness

When our vices leave us, we like to imagine it is we who are leaving them.
-- Francois de La Rochefoucauld

#Leaving #Vices #Imagine

It is great folly to wish to be wise all alone.
-- Francois de La Rochefoucauld

#Wise #Wisdom #Wish

The accent of one's birthplace remains in the mind and in the heart as in one's speech.
-- Francois de La Rochefoucauld

#Heart #Mind #Speech

When our hatred is violent, it sinks us even beneath those we hate.
-- Francois de La Rochefoucauld

#Life #Hate #Hatred

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

#Looks #Employment #May

We are much harder on people who betray us in small ways than on people who betray others in great ones.
-- Francois de La Rochefoucauld

#Betrayal #People #Way

There are heroes in evil as well as in good.
-- Francois de La Rochefoucauld

#Hero #Evil #Heroism

We would frequently be ashamed of our good deeds if people saw all of the motives that produced them.
-- Francois de La Rochefoucauld

#Inspirational #Integrity #People

Many people despise wealth, but few know how to give it away.
-- Francois de La Rochefoucauld

#Life #People #Giving

People's personalities, like buildings, have various facades, some pleasant to view, some not.
-- Francois de La Rochefoucauld

#Views #People #Personality

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

#Happiness #Happy #Heart

Gracefulness is to the body what understanding is to the mind.
-- Francois de La Rochefoucauld

#Grace #Understanding #Mind