François de La Rochefoucauld quotes
François de La Rochefoucauld (1613–1680): French author of maxims and memoirs. The library holds 748 quotes by François de La Rochefoucauld, drawn from Maxims, Maxims (supplement), Maxim. The 60 below are the most quoted; search the library in the maker for the rest.
Often about: wisdom, life, love, truth, friendship, character
The best-known François de La Rochefoucauld quotes
-
Silence is the best resolve for him who distrusts himself.
Maxims, Maxim 79 · translated by J. W. Willis Bund and J. Hain Friswell -
Lovers are never tired of each other,—they always speak of themselves.
Maxims, Maxim 312 · translated by J. W. Willis Bund and J. Hain Friswell -
We need greater virtues to sustain good than evil fortune.
Maxims, Maxim 25 · translated by J. W. Willis Bund and J. Hain Friswell -
We are never so happy or so unhappy as we suppose.
Maxims, Maxim 49 · translated by J. W. Willis Bund and J. Hain Friswell -
Opportunity makes us known to others, but more to ourselves.
Maxims, Maxim 345 · translated by J. W. Willis Bund and J. Hain Friswell -
Little minds are too much wounded by little things; great minds see all and are not even hurt.
Maxims, Maxim 357 · translated by J. W. Willis Bund and J. Hain Friswell -
However brilliant an action it should not be esteemed great unless the result of a great motive.
Maxims, Maxim 160 · translated by J. W. Willis Bund and J. Hain Friswell -
Quarrels would not last long if the fault was only on one side.
Maxims, Maxim 496 · translated by J. W. Willis Bund and J. Hain Friswell -
Men would not live long in society were they not the dupes of each other.
Maxims, Maxim 87 · translated by J. W. Willis Bund and J. Hain Friswell -
We hardly find any persons of good sense, save those who agree with us.
Maxims, Maxim 347 · translated by J. W. Willis Bund and J. Hain Friswell -
Flattery is base coin to which only our vanity gives currency.
Maxims, Maxim 158 · translated by J. W. Willis Bund and J. Hain Friswell -
Our repentance is not so much sorrow for the ill we have done as fear of the ill that may happen to us.
Maxims, Maxim 180 · translated by J. W. Willis Bund and J. Hain Friswell -
The love of justice is simply in the majority of men the fear of suffering injustice.
Maxims, Maxim 78 · translated by J. W. Willis Bund and J. Hain Friswell -
We give advice, but we cannot give the wisdom to profit by it.
Maxims (supplement), Supplement, CXVII · translated by J. W. Willis Bund and J. Hain Friswell -
The true way to be deceived is to think oneself more knowing than others.
Maxims, Maxim 127 · translated by J. W. Willis Bund and J. Hain Friswell -
Humility is the altar upon which God wishes that we should offer him his sacrifices.
Maxims (supplement), Supplement, LXXIX · translated by J. W. Willis Bund and J. Hain Friswell -
The pleasure of love is in loving, we are happier in the passion we feel than in that we inspire.
Maxims, Maxim 259 · translated by J. W. Willis Bund and J. Hain Friswell -
There is great ability in knowing how to conceal one’s ability.
Maxims, Maxim 245 · translated by J. W. Willis Bund and J. Hain Friswell -
Jealousy is always born with love, but does not always die with it.
Maxims, Maxim 361 · translated by J. W. Willis Bund and J. Hain Friswell -
We always like those who admire us, we do not always like those whom we admire.
Maxims, Maxim 294 · translated by J. W. Willis Bund and J. Hain Friswell -
Philosophy triumphs easily over past evils and future evils; but present evils triumph over it.
Maxims, Maxim 22 · translated by J. W. Willis Bund and J. Hain Friswell -
Ideas often flash across our minds more complete than we could make them after much labour.
Maxims, Maxim 101 · translated by J. W. Willis Bund and J. Hain Friswell -
Renewed friendships require more care than those that have never been broken.
Maxims (supplement), Supplement, CXXIV · translated by J. W. Willis Bund and J. Hain Friswell -
The gratitude of most men is but a secret desire of receiving greater benefits.
Maxims, Maxim 298 · translated by J. W. Willis Bund and J. Hain Friswell -
The greatest miracle of love is to eradicate flirtation.
Maxims, Maxim 349 · translated by J. W. Willis Bund and J. Hain Friswell -
Those only are despicable who fear to be despised.
Maxims, Maxim 322 · translated by J. W. Willis Bund and J. Hain Friswell -
Most people judge men only by success or by fortune.
Maxims, Maxim 212 · translated by J. W. Willis Bund and J. Hain Friswell -
Hypocrisy is the homage vice pays to virtue.
Maxims, Maxim 218 · translated by J. W. Willis Bund and J. Hain Friswell -
There is more self-love than love in jealousy.
Maxims, Maxim 324 · translated by J. W. Willis Bund and J. Hain Friswell -
Envy is more irreconcilable than hatred.
Maxims, Maxim 328 · translated by J. W. Willis Bund and J. Hain Friswell -
Nothing is given so profusely as advice.
Maxims, Maxim 110 · translated by J. W. Willis Bund and J. Hain Friswell -
We pardon in the degree that we love.
Maxims, Maxim 330 · translated by J. W. Willis Bund and J. Hain Friswell -
Justice in those judges who are moderate is but a love of their place.
Maxims (supplement), Supplement, XII · translated by J. W. Willis Bund and J. Hain Friswell -
One may say of temper as of many buildings; it has divers aspects, some agreeable, others disagreeable.
Maxims, Maxim 292 · translated by J. W. Willis Bund and J. Hain Friswell -
Nothing should so much diminish the satisfaction which we feel with ourselves as seeing that we disapprove at one time of that which we approve of at another.
Maxims, Maxim 51 · translated by J. W. Willis Bund and J. Hain Friswell -
Self love is more cunning than the most cunning man in the world.
Maxims, Maxim 4 · translated by J. W. Willis Bund and J. Hain Friswell -
Why we cry out so much against maxims which lay bare the heart of man, is because we fear that our own heart shall be laid bare.
Maxims (supplement), Supplement, LXVII · translated by J. W. Willis Bund and J. Hain Friswell -
There are few people who would not be ashamed of being beloved when they love no longer.
Maxims, Maxim 71 · translated by J. W. Willis Bund and J. Hain Friswell -
As one is never at liberty to love or to cease from loving, the lover cannot with justice complain of the inconstancy of his mistress, nor she of the fickleness of her lover.
Maxims (supplement), Supplement, XI · translated by J. W. Willis Bund and J. Hain Friswell -
Nothing is rarer than true good nature, those who think they have it are generally only pliant or weak.
Maxims, Maxim 481 · translated by J. W. Willis Bund and J. Hain Friswell -
Few persons on the first approach of age do not show wherein their body, or their mind, is beginning to fail.
Maxims, Maxim 222 · translated by J. W. Willis Bund and J. Hain Friswell -
The greater part of men have qualities which, like those of plants, are discovered by chance.
Maxims (supplement), Supplement, XCV · translated by J. W. Willis Bund and J. Hain Friswell -
Too great cleverness is but deceptive delicacy, true delicacy is the most substantial cleverness.
Maxims, Maxim 128 · translated by J. W. Willis Bund and J. Hain Friswell -
The greatest fault of penetration is not that it goes to the bottom of a matter—but beyond it.
Maxims (supplement), Supplement, CXVI · translated by J. W. Willis Bund and J. Hain Friswell -
To understand matters rightly we should understand their details, and as that knowledge is almost infinite, our knowledge is always superficial and imperfect.
Maxims, Maxim 106 · translated by J. W. Willis Bund and J. Hain Friswell -
If there is a pure love, exempt from the mixture of our other passions, it is that which is concealed at the bottom of the heart and of which even ourselves are ignorant.
Maxims, Maxim 69 · translated by J. W. Willis Bund and J. Hain Friswell -
Avarice often produces opposite results: there are an infinite number of persons who sacrifice their property to doubtful and distant expectations, others mistake great future advantages for small present interests.
Maxims, Maxim 492 · translated by J. W. Willis Bund and J. Hain Friswell -
Youth changes its tastes by the warmth of its blood, age retains its tastes by habit.
Maxims, Maxim 109 · translated by J. W. Willis Bund and J. Hain Friswell -
Jealousy is the worst of all evils, yet the one that is least pitied by those who cause it.
Maxims, Maxim 503 · translated by J. W. Willis Bund and J. Hain Friswell -
To establish ourselves in the world we do everything to appear as if we were established.
Maxims, Maxim 56 · translated by J. W. Willis Bund and J. Hain Friswell -
The wit of most women rather strengthens their folly than their reason.
Maxims, Maxim 340 · translated by J. W. Willis Bund and J. Hain Friswell -
Pride has a larger part than goodness in our remonstrances with those who commit faults, and we reprove them not so much to correct as to persuade them that we ourselves are free from faults.
Maxims, Maxim 37 · translated by J. W. Willis Bund and J. Hain Friswell -
What makes the vanity of others unsupportable is that it wounds our own.
Maxims, Maxim 389 · translated by J. W. Willis Bund and J. Hain Friswell -
We find very few people of good sense, except those who are of our own opinion.
Maxims (supplement), Supplement, CVI · translated by J. W. Willis Bund and J. Hain Friswell -
We have much trouble to break with one, when we no longer are in love.
Maxims, Maxim 351 · translated by J. W. Willis Bund and J. Hain Friswell -
Before strongly desiring anything we should examine what happiness he has who possesses it.
Maxims (supplement), Supplement, LXXXV · translated by J. W. Willis Bund and J. Hain Friswell -
There are those who avoid our jealousy, of whom we ought to be jealous.
Maxims (supplement), Supplement, CI · translated by J. W. Willis Bund and J. Hain Friswell -
Humility is the true proof of Christian virtues; without it we retain all our faults, and they are only covered by pride to hide them from others, and often from ourselves.
Maxims, Maxim 358 · translated by J. W. Willis Bund and J. Hain Friswell -
If we judge of love by the majority of its results it rather resembles hatred than friendship.
Maxims, Maxim 72 · translated by J. W. Willis Bund and J. Hain Friswell -
If we had no pride we should not complain of that of others.
Maxims, Maxim 34 · translated by J. W. Willis Bund and J. Hain Friswell
Where these quotes come from
- Maxims (443 quotes)
- Maxims (supplement) (100 quotes)
- Maxim (13 quotes)
Every quote comes from a public-domain edition. How the library was made .