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
Avarice is more directly opposed to thrift than generosity is.
Envy is more incapable of reconciliation than hatred is.
The greatest part of our faults are more excusable than the methods that are commonly taken to conceal them.
The applause we give those who are new to society often proceeds from a secret envying of those already established.
The only thing that should astonish us is that anything can yet astonish us.
Commonplace minds usually condemn what is beyond the reach of their understanding.
Some disguised deceits counterfeit truth so perfectly that not to be taken in by them would be an error of judgment.
Without humility, we keep all our defects; and they are only crusted over by pride, which conceals them from others, and often from ourselves.
It is easier to fall in love when you are out of it than to get out of it when you are in.
Virtue is to the soul what health is tot he body.
It is not always for virtue's sake that women are virtuous.
Our hopes, often though they deceive us, lead us pleasantly along the path of life.
Absence abates a moderate passion and intensifies a great one - as the wind blows out a candle but fans fire into flame.
Consolation for unhappiness can often be found in a certain satisfaction we get from looking unhappy.