Quotes by Francois de La Rochefoucauld

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Why 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?

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

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

The moderation of people in prosperity is the effect of a smooth and composed temper, owing to the calm of their good fortune.

Francois de La Rochefoucauld

That good disposition which boasts of being most tender is often stifled by the least urging of self-interest.

Francois de La Rochefoucauld

Our concern for the loss of our friends is not always from a sense of their worth, but rather of our own need of them and that we have lost some who had a good opinion of us.

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

We seldom find any person of good sense, except those who share our opinions.

Francois de La Rochefoucauld

The desire of talking of ourselves, and showing those faults we do not mind having seen, makes up a good part of our sincerity.

Francois de La Rochefoucauld

Old men are fond of giving good advice to console themselves for their inability to give bad examples.

Francois de La Rochefoucauld

There are heroes in evil as well as in good.

Francois de La Rochefoucauld

It takes nearly as much ability to know how to profit by good advice as to know how to act for one's self.

Francois de La Rochefoucauld

We seldom praise anyone in good earnest, except such as admire us.

Francois de La Rochefoucauld

Whatever good things people say of us, they tell us nothing new.

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

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

If we are to judge of love by its consequences, it more nearly resembles hatred than friendship.

Francois de La Rochefoucauld

In friendship as well as love, ignorance very often contributes more to our happiness than knowledge.

Francois de La Rochefoucauld

Repentance is not so much remorse for what we have done as the fear of the consequences.

Francois de La Rochefoucauld

Love can no more continue without a constant motion than fire can; and when once you take hope and fear away, you take from it its very life and being.

Francois de La Rochefoucauld

Only the contemptible fear contempt.

Francois de La Rochefoucauld