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
No matter how much care we put into hiding our passions under the appearances of devotion and honor, they can always be seen to peer out through these covers.
A fashionable woman is always in love - with herself.
We often credit ourselves with vices the reverse of what we have, thus when weak we boast of our obstinacy.
In order to succeed in the world people do their upmost to appear successful.
To praise princes for virtues they do not possess is to insult them without fear of consequences.
Hypocrisy is an homage that vice renders to virtue.
A person well satisfied with themselves is seldom satisfied with others, and others, rarely are with them.
There are fine things that are more brilliant when they are unfinished than when finished too much.
The constancy of the wise is only the talent of concealing the agitation of their hearts.
We speak little if not egged on by vanity.
In growing old, we become more foolish - and more wise.
The surest proof of being endowed with noble qualities is to be free from envy.
Only the great can afford to have great defects.
We forget our faults easily when they are known to ourselves alone.