François de la Rochefoucauld Quotes
28 quotes from François de la Rochefoucauld — French moralist and author of 'Maxims,' a collection of pithy observations on human nature that remain influential 350….
“No persons are more frequently wrong, than those who will not admit they are wrong.”
“Absence diminishes small loves and increases great ones, as the wind blows out the candle and fans the bonfire.”
“If we had no faults we should not take so much pleasure in noting those of others.”
“It is easier to be wise for others than for ourselves.”
“We are so accustomed to disguise ourselves to others, that in the end, we become disguised to ourselves.”
“Quarrels would not last long if the fault was only on one side.”
“Most of our faults are more pardonable than the means we use to conceal them.”
“Old people love to give good advice; it compensates them for their inability to set a bad example.”
“If we resist our passions, it is more due to their weakness than our strength.”
“We promise according to our expectations and we want according to our fears.”
“There is no disguise which can hide love for long where it exists, or simulate it where it does not.”
“True love is like ghosts, which everyone talks about and few have seen.”
“Our virtues are usually only vices in disguise.”
“Pride plays a greater part than kindness in the reprimands we address to wrongdoers.”
“People too much taken up with little things usually become incapable of big ones.”
“The great souls are not those who have fewer passions and more virtues than common souls, but only those who have nobler plans.”
“It is not enough to possess a virtue; it must be put into action.”
“The defects and faults of 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.”
“There is no disguise which can long conceal love where it exists.”
“We arrive at various ages of life, and we often lack experience despite the number of years.”
“Evil as well as good has its heroes.”
“Confidence contributes more to conversation than wit.”
“Virtues are lost in self-interest as rivers are lost in the sea.”
“Hypocrisy is the homage that vice pays to virtue.”
“We all have strength enough to endure the misfortunes of others.”
“Perfect courage is to do without witnesses what one would be capable of doing before all the world.”
“If we resist our passions, it is more from their weakness than from our strength.”
“To speak first about my temperament, I am melancholic — so much so that I have scarcely been seen to laugh more than three or four times in the last three or four years.”
