Vices are ingredients of virtues just as poisons are ingredients of remedies. Prudence mixes and tempers them and uses them effectively against… — Francois de La Rochefoucauld Copy Share Image
We should not judge a man's merits by his great qualities, but by the use he makes of them. — Francois de La Rochefoucauld Copy Share Image
Though most of the friendships of the world ill deserve the name of friendships; yet a man may make use of them… — Francois de La Rochefoucauld Copy Share Image
Great men's honor ought always to be measured by the methods they made use of in attaining it. — Francois de La Rochefoucauld Copy Share Image
The best way to rise in society is to use all possible means of persuading people that one has already risen in… — Francois de La Rochefoucauld Copy Share Image
Fearlessness is a more than ordinary strength of mind, which raises the soul above the troubles, disorders, and emotions which theprospect of… — Francois de La Rochefoucauld Copy Share Image
There are a great many simpletons who know themselves to be so, and who make a very cunning use of their own… — Francois de La Rochefoucauld Copy Share Image
We often make use of envenomed praise, that reveals on the rebound, as it were, defects in those praised which we dare… — Francois de La Rochefoucauld Copy Share Image
We do not lack strength so much as the will to use it; and very often our imagining that things are impossible… — Francois de La Rochefoucauld Copy Share Image
Hope is the last thing that dies in man; and though it be exceedingly deceitful, yet it is of this good use… — Francois de La Rochefoucauld Copy Share Image
Pride, which inspires us with so much envy, is sometimes of use toward the moderating of it too. — Francois de La Rochefoucauld Copy Share Image
There are very few things impossible in themselves; and we do not want means to conquer difficulties so much as application and… — Francois de La Rochefoucauld Copy Share Image
Most of our faults are more pardonable than the means we use to conceal them. — Francois de La Rochefoucauld Copy Share Image
The most ingenious men continually pretend to condemn tricking--but this is often done that they may use it more conveniently themselves, when… — Francois de La Rochefoucauld Copy Share Image
Some weak people are so sensible of their weakness as to be able to make a good use of it. — Francois de La Rochefoucauld Copy Share Image
As it is the mark of great minds to say many things in a few words, so it is that of little… — Francois de La Rochefoucauld Copy Share Image
Those who have the most cunning affect all their lives to condemn cunning; that they may make use of it on some… — Francois de La Rochefoucauld Copy Share Image
Moral severity in women is only a dress or paint which they use to set off their beauty. — Francois de La Rochefoucauld Copy Share Image
The force we use on ourselves, to prevent ourselves from loving, is often more cruel than the severest treatment at the hands… — Francois de La Rochefoucauld Copy Share Image
The vices enter into the composition of the virtues, as poisons into that of medicines. Prudence collects and arranges them, and uses… — Francois de La Rochefoucauld Copy Share Image
Sometimes there is equal or more ability in knowing how to use good advice than there is in giving it. — Francois de La Rochefoucauld Copy Share Image
Satire is at once the most agreeable and most dangerous of mental qualities. It always pleases when it is refined, but we… — Francois de La Rochefoucauld Copy Share Image
Humility is often only feigned submission which people use to render others submissive. It is a subterfuge of pride which lowers itself… — Francois de La Rochefoucauld Copy Share Image
Customary use of artifice is the sign of a small mind, and it almost always happens that he who uses it to… — Francois de La Rochefoucauld Copy Share Image
It is sometimes a point of as much cleverness to know to make good use of advice from others as to be… — Francois de La Rochefoucauld Copy Share Image
Our own distrust gives a fair pretence for the knavery of other people. — Francois de La Rochefoucauld Copy Share Image
Behind many acts that are thought ridiculous there lie wise and weighty motives. — Francois de La Rochefoucauld Copy Share Image
“Passion often makes a madman of the cleverest man, and renders the greatest fools clever.” — François de La Rochefoucauld Copy Share Image
Perseverance is neither praiseworthy nor blameworthy; for it seems to be only the enduring of certain inclinations and opinions which men neither give themselves… — Francois de La Rochefoucauld Copy Share Image
A woman is faithful to her first lover for a long time - unless she happens to take a second. — Francois de La Rochefoucauld Copy Share Image
We are almost always wearied in the company of persons with whom we are not permitted to be weary. — Francois de La Rochefoucauld Copy Share Image
The love of new acquaintance comes not so much from being weary of what we had before, or from any satisfaction there is in… — Francois de La Rochefoucauld Copy Share Image
It is sometimes necessary to play the fool to avoid being deceived by cunning men. — Francois de La Rochefoucauld Copy Share Image
The intention of never deceiving often exposes us to deception. — Francois de La Rochefoucauld Copy Share Image
Jealousy springs more from love of self than from love of another. — Francois de La Rochefoucauld Copy Share Image
No persons are more frequently wrong, than those who will not admit they are wrong. — Francois de La Rochefoucauld Copy Share Image
