François De La Rochefoucauld ✓

Best François De La Rochefoucauld Quotes

• Politeness of mind consists in thinking chaste and refined thoughts. Chaste
• Vanity, shame, and above all disposition, often make men brave and women chaste. All
• It is not always from valor or from chastity that men are brave, and women chaste. Brave
• The height of ability in the least able consists in knowing how to submit to the good leadership of others. Ability
• What makes us so often discontented with those who transact business for us is that they almost always abandon the interest of their friends for… Abandon
• We give nothing so freely as advice. Advice
• It appears that nature has hid at the bottom of our hearts talents and abilities unknown to us. It is only the passions that have… Abilities
• Folly pursues us at all periods of our lives. If someone seems wise it is only because his follies are proportionate to his age and… Age
• Flattery is a base coin which is current only through our vanity. Base
• Gallantry of mind consists in saying flattering things in an agreeable manner. Agreeable
• We torment ourselves rather to make it appear that we are happy than to become so. Appear
• The happiness and unhappiness of men depends as much on their ethics as on fortune. Depends
• There may be talent without position, but there is no position without some kind of talent. Genius
• When fortune surprises us by giving us some great office without having gradually led us to expect it, or without having raised our hopes, it… Appear
• 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… Advantage
• The qualities we have, make us so ridiculous as those which we affect. Affect
• To understand matters rightly we should understand their details; and as that knowledge is almost infinite, our knowledge is always superficial and imperfect. Almost Infinite
• Philosophy triumphs easily over past evils and future evils, but present evils triumph over it. Easily
• Eloquence: saying the proper thing and stopping. Eloquence
• There is at least as much eloquence in the voice, eyes, and air of a speaker as in his choice of words. Air
• It is most difficult to speak when we are ashamed of being silent. Ashamed
• He is a truly virtuous man who wishes always to be open to the observation of honest men. Conflict
• It is easy to be wise on behalf of others than to be so for ourselves. Behalf
• People are more slanderous from vanity than from malice. From
• What renders other people's vanity insufferable is that it wounds our own. Insufferable

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