French author (1613-1680)
Death and the sun can't be looked at steadily.
FRANÇOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
Moral Maxims
We bear, all of us, the misfortunes of other people with heroic constancy.
FRANÇOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
Moral Maxims
'Tis as easy to deceive ourselves without our perceiving it, as 'tis difficult to deceive others without their perceiving it.
FRANÇOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
Moral Maxims
The dullness of certain people is sometimes a sufficient security against the attack of an artful man.
FRANÇOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
Moral Maxims
We easily forgive in our friends those faults we do not perceive.
FRANÇOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims
Sometimes we meet a fool with wit, never one with discretion.
FRANÇOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims
We sometimes condemn the present, by praising the past; and show our contempt of what is now, by our esteem for what is no more.
FRANÇOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
Moral Maxims
If we took as much pains to be what we ought, as we do to deceive others by disguising what we are; we might appear as we are, without being at the trouble of any disguise.
FRANÇOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
Moral Maxims
Misers mistake gold for their good; whereas 'tis only a means of attaining it.
FRANÇOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
Moral Maxims
The ambitious deceive themselves in proposing an end to their ambition; that end, when attained, becomes a means.
FRANÇOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
Moral Maxims
Our actions are like blank rhymes, to which everyone applies what sense he pleases.
FRANÇOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
Moral Maxims
We try to make a virtue of vices we are loath to correct.
FRANÇOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims
Envy is destroyed by true friendship, and coquetry by true love.
FRANÇOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
Moral Maxims
Few things are impracticable in themselves; and 'tis for want of application, rather than of means, that men fail of success.
FRANÇOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
Moral Maxims
Of all the violent passions, the one that becomes a woman best is love.
FRANÇOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims
What seems like generosity is often but a disguised ambition, which overlooks little interests, in order to gratify great ones.
FRANÇOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
Moral Maxims
We have no more control over the duration of our passions than we do over the duration of our life.
FRANÇOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims
What makes the vanity of others unsupportable is that it wounds our own.
FRANÇOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims
Those who have the most cunning affect all their lives to condemn cunning; that they may make use of it on some great occasion, and to some great end.
FRANÇOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
Moral Maxims
We judge so superficially of things, that common words and actions spoke and done in an agreeable manner, with some knowledge of what passes in the world, often succeed beyond the greatest ability.
FRANÇOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
Moral Maxims