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 only security is courage.
Affected simplicity is an elegant imposture.
We feel good and ill only in proportion to our self-love.
There are some bad qualities which make great talents.
The tranquility or agitation of our temper does not depend so much on the big things which happen to us in life, as on the pleasant or unpleasant arrangements of the little things which happen daily.
Sobriety is love of health, or inability to eat much.
Truth does less good in the world than its appearances do harm.
Truth does not do as much good in the world as its imitations do harm.
We like to read others but we do not like to be read.
The most violent passions sometimes leave us at rest, but vanity agitates us constantly.
Vices are ingredients of virtues just as poisons are ingredients of remedies. Prudence mixes and tempers them and uses them effectively against life's ills.
Often we are firm from weakness, and audacious from timidity.
The greatest fault of a penetrating wit is to go beyond the mark.
There is scarcely any man sufficiently clever to appreciate all the evil he does.