Francois de La Rochefoucauld (1613-1680)

Quotes

• The pleasure of love is in loving.

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

• The glory of great men should always be measured by the means they have used to acquire it.

• To eat is a necessity, but to eat intelligently is an art.

• Hypocrisy is the homage which vice pays to virtue.

• The sort of liveliness which increases with age is not far distant from madness.

• There are very few women in society whose virtue outlasts their beauty.

• The man whom no one pleases is much more unhappy than the man who pleases no one.

• The most dangerous folly of old people who were once attractive is to forget that they are not so any longer.

• However brilliant an action, it should not be esteemed great unless the result of a great motive.

• We are so accustomed to disguise ourselves to others that in the end we become disguised to ourselves.

• The passions are the only orators that always persuade.

• The passions often engender their contraries.

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

• The defects and faults in the mind are like wounds in the body. After all imaginable care has been taken to heal them up, still there will be a scar left behind.

• Many people despise wealth, but few know how to give it away.

• We are so accustomed to disguise ourselves to others, that in the end, we become disguised to ourselves.

• As one grows older, one becomes wiser and more foolish.

• Solemnity is a device of the body to hide the faults of the mind.

• Behind many acts that are thought ridiculous there lie wise and weighty motives.