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
The measure of great men should always be measured by the means they have used to acquire it.
We often do shallow good in order to accomplish evil with impunity.
The greatest of all gifts is the power to estimate things at their true worth
It is with certain good qualities as with the senses; those who have them not can neither appreciate nor comprehend them in others.
Nature creates ability; luck provides it with opportunity.
The violence done us by others is often less painful than that which we do to ourselves.
It's easier to know people in general than one person in particular
The world more often rewards the appearances of merit than merit itself.
It is only persons of firmness that can have real gentleness. Those who appear gentle are, in general, only a weak character, which easily changes into asperity.
We never desire strongly, what we desire rationally.
Women know not the whole of their coquetry.
We pardon as long as we love.
The greatest miracle of love is the cure of coquetry.
It seems that nature, which has so wisely disposed our bodily organs with a view to our happiness, has also bestowed on us pride, to spare us the pain of being aware of our imperfections.