Top 131 Francois de La Rochefoucauld Quotes

There is a kind of elevation which does not depend on fortune; it is a certain air which distinguishes us, and seems to destine us for great things; it is a price which we imperceptibly set upon ourselves.

We are more interested in making others believe we are happy than in trying to be happy ourselves.

Every one speaks well of his own heart, but no one dares speak well of his own mind.

Why can we remember the tiniest detail that has happened to us, and not remember how many times we have told it to the same person.

When we disclaim praise, it is only showing our desire to be praised a second time.

In most of mankind gratitude is merely a secret hope of further favors.

Some counterfeits reproduce so very well the truth that it would be a flaw of judgment not to be deceived by them.

Those who are incapable of committing great crimes do not readily suspect them in others.

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.

Being a blockhead is sometimes the best security against being cheated by a man of wit.

As great minds have the faculty of saying a great deal in a few words, so lesser minds have a talent of talking much, and saying nothing.

Ridicule dishonors a man more than dishonor does.

Quarrels would not last long if the fault was only on one side.

There are various sorts of curiosity; one is from interest, which makes us desire to know that which may be useful to us; and the other, from pride which comes from the wish to know what others are ignorant of.

Few people have the wisdom to prefer the criticism that would do them good, to the praise that deceives them.

The generality of virtuous women are like hidden treasures, they are safe only because nobody has sought after them.

A great many men’s gratitude is nothing but a secret desire to hook in more valuable kindnesses hereafter.

The principal point of cleverness is to know how to value things just as they deserve.

We are nearer loving those who hate us than those who love us more than we wish.

If we judge love by most of its effects, it resembles rather hatred than affection.

Good advice is something a man gives when he is too old to set a bad example.

However greatly we distrust the sincerity of those we converse with, yet still we think they tell more truth to us than to anyone else.

There is many a virtuous woman weary of her trade.

Gracefulness is to the body what understanding is to the mind.

Most of our faults are more pardonable than the means we use to conceal them.

The man that thinks he loves his mistress for her own sake is mightily mistaken.

Hypocrisy is the homage vice pays to virtue.

People’s personalities, like buildings, have various facades, some pleasant to view, some not.

We always love those who admire us, but we do not always love those whom we admire.

The accent of one’s birthplace remains in the mind and in the heart as in one’s speech.

The mind cannot long play the heart’s role.

There are very few things impossible in themselves; and we do not want means to conquer difficulties so much as application and resolution in the use of means.

The sure way to be cheated is to think one’s self more cunning than others.

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

Confidence contributes more to conversation than wit.

Moderation is the feebleness and sloth of the soul, whereas ambition is the warmth and activity of it.

Many men are contemptuous of riches; few can give them away.

The one thing people are the most liberal with, is their advice.

All the passions make us commit faults; love makes us commit the most ridiculous ones.

The intellect is always fooled by the heart.

We do not praise others, ordinarily, but in order to be praised ourselves.

On neither the sun, nor death, can a man look fixedly.

What keeps us from abandoning ourselves entirely to one vice, often, is the fact that we have several.

It is with an old love as it is with old age a man lives to all the miseries, but is dead to all the pleasures.

Nothing is so contagious as example; and we never do any great good or evil which does not produce its like.

However glorious an action in itself, it ought not to pass for great if it be not the effect of wisdom and intention.

Philosophy finds it an easy matter to vanquish past and future evils, but the present are commonly too hard for it.

We often forgive those who bore us, but we cannot forgive those whom we bore.

We would rather speak ill of ourselves than not talk about ourselves at all.

The reason that lovers never weary each other is because they are always talking about themselves.

Though men are apt to flatter and exalt themselves with their great achievements, yet these are, in truth, very often owing not so much to design as chance.

Confidence contributes more to conversation than wit.

In all professions each affects a look and an exterior to appear what he wishes the world to believe that he is. Thus we may say that the whole world is made up of appearances.

There is nothing men are so generous of as advice.

The defects of the mind, like those of the face, grow worse with age.

If we have not peace within ourselves, it is in vain to seek it from outward sources.

There are various sorts of curiosity; one is from interest, which makes us desire to know that which may be useful to us; and the other, from pride which comes from the wish to know what others are ignorant of.

We are very far from always knowing our own wishes.

The mind is always the patsy of the heart.

When a man is in love, he doubts, very often, what he most firmly believes.

However rare true love may be, it is less so than true friendship.

It is almost always a fault of one who loves not to realize when he ceases to be loved.

We get so much in the habit of wearing disguises before others that we finally appear disguised before ourselves.

Virtue would go far if vanity did not keep it company.

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.

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

To achieve greatness one should live as if they will never die.

We promise according to our hopes and perform according to our fears.

Only the contemptible fear contempt.

A man is sometimes as different from himself as he is from others.

There are heroes in evil as well as in good.

Neither the sun nor death can be looked at with a steady eye.

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

Decency is the least of all laws, but yet it is the law which is most strictly observed.

We pardon to the extent that we love.

The only thing that should surprise us is that there are still some things that can surprise us.

Our aversion to lying is commonly a secret ambition to make what we say considerable, and have every word received with a religious respect.

In love we often doubt what we most believe.

The heart is forever making the head its fool.

A refusal of praise is a desire to be praised twice.

Nothing hinders a thing from being natural so much as the straining ourselves to make it seem so.

Pride does not wish to owe and vanity does not wish to pay.

Perfect Valor is to do, without a witness, all that we could do before the whole world.

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

There are very few people who are not ashamed of having been in love when they no longer love each other.