Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
François VI, Duc de La Rochefoucauld, Prince de Marcillacla ʁɔʃfuˈko]; 15 September 1613 – 17 March 1680) was a noted French author of maxims and memoirs. It is said that his world-view was clear-eyed and urbane, and that he neither condemned human conduct nor sentimentally celebrated it. Born in Paris on the Rue des Petits Champs, at a time when the royal court was vacillating between aiding the nobility and threatening it, he was considered an exemplar of the accomplished 17th-century...
NationalityFrench
ProfessionWriter
Date of Birth15 September 1613
CountryFrance
Francois de La Rochefoucauld quotes about
Our enemies come nearer the truth in the opinions they form of us than we do in our opinion of ourselves.
Listening well and answering well is one of the greatest perfections that can be obtained in conversation.
Second-rate minds usually condemn everything beyond their grasp.
Of all our faults, the one that we excuse most easily is idleness.
Those who most obstinately oppose the most widely-held opinions more often do so because of pride than lack of intelligence. They find the best places in the right set already taken, and they do not want back seats.
One may outwit another, but not all the others.
There are few things we should keenly desire if we really knew what we wanted.
He who imagines he can do without the world deceives himself much; but he who fancies the world cannot do without him is still more mistaken.
In the human heart one generation of passions follows another; from the ashes of one springs the spark of the next.
We forgive so long as we love.
Passion often makes fools of the wisest men and gives the silliest wisdom.
Extreme boredom provides its own antidote.
We are almost always bored by just those whom we must not find boring.
Few things are needed to make a wise man happy; nothing can make a fool content; that is why most men are miserable.