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
Those who occupy their minds with small matters, generally become incapable of greatness.
Old people love to give good advice; it compensates them for their inability to set a bad example.
The defects and faults of the mind are like wounds in the body; after all imaginable care has been taken to heal them up, still there will be a scar left behind, and they are in continual danger of breaking the skin and bursting out again.
Hope, deceiving as it is, serves at least to lead us to the end of our lives by an agreeable route.
If we have not peace within ourselves, it is in vain to seek it from outward sources.
We come altogether fresh and raw into the several stages of life, and often find ourselves without experience, despite our years.
The generality of virtuous women are like hidden treasures, they are safe only because nobody has sought after them.
It is not in the power of even the most crafty dissimulation to conceal love long, where it really is, nor to counterfeit it long where it is not.
Only the contemptible fear contempt.
Those who are incapable of committing great crimes do not readily suspect them in others.
It takes nearly as much ability to know how to profit by good advice as to know how to act for one's self.
Pride, which inspires us with so much envy, is sometimes of use toward the moderating of it too.
The virtues and vices are all put in motion by interest.
There is many a virtuous woman weary of her trade.