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
It is a wearisome disease to preserve health by too strict a regimen.
What makes us so bitter against people who outwit us is that they think themselves cleverer than we are.
The mind is always the patsy of the heart.
If it requires great tact to speak to the purpose, it requires no less to know when to be silent.
Whatever pretext we may give for our affections, often it is only interest and vanity which cause them.
The desire of appearing clever often prevents our becoming so.
We cannot possibly imagine the variety of contradictions in every heart.
Love of fame, fear of disgrace, schemes for advancement, desire to make life comfortable and pleasant, and the urge to humiliate others are often at the root of the valour men hold in such high esteem.
Perfect courage and utter cowardice are two extremes which rarely occur.
Customary use of artifice is the sign of a small mind, and it almost always happens that he who uses it to cover one spot uncovers himself in another.
We acknowledge our faults in order to repair by our sincerity the damage they have done us in the eyes of others.
It is more often from pride than from defective understanding that people oppose established opinions: they find the best places taken in the good party and are reluctant to accept inferior ones.
Our distrust justifies the deceit of others.
Nothing is so contagious as example.