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
One kind of flirtation is to boast we never flirt.
Some reproaches praise; some praises reproach.
On neither the sun, nor death, can a man look fixedly.
When great men permit themselves to be cast down by the continuance of misfortune, they show us that they were only sustained by ambition, and not by their mind; so that PLUS a great vanity, heroes are made like other men.
The most subtle of our acts is to simulate blindness for snares that we know are set for us.
The smallest fault of women who give themselves up to love is to love.
Men and things have each their proper perspective; to judge rightly of some it is necessary to see them near, of others we can never judge rightly but at a distance.
The most clever and polite are content with only seeming attentive while we perceive in their mind and eyes that at the very time they are wandering from what is said and desire to return to what they want to say.
We often pay our debts not because it is only fair that we should, but to make future loans easier.
We sometimes differ more widely from ourselves than we do from others.
If one acts rightly and honestly, it is difficult to decide whether it is the effect of integrity or skill.
Everyone blames his memory, no one blames his judgment.
There are persons whose only merit consists in saying and doing stupid things at the right time, and who ruin all if they change their manners.
The evil that we do does not attract to us so much persecution and hatred as our good qualities.