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
Those only are despicable who fear to be despised.
All women seem by nature to be coquettes.
Women find it far more difficult to overcome their inclination to coquetry than to overcome their love.
Cunning and treachery are the offspring of incapacity.
The most sure method of subjecting yourself to be deceived is to consider yourself more cunning than others.
Those who are overreached by our cunning are far from appearing to us as ridiculous as we appear to ourselves when the cunning of others has overreached us.
Were we perfectly acquainted with the object, we should never passionately desire it.
In love the deceit generally outstrips the distrust.
We often boast that we are never bored; but yet we are so conceited that we do not perceive how often we bore others.
Esteem never makes ingrates.
Nothing is so contagious as example; never was there any considerable good or ill done that does not produce its like. We imitate good actions through emulation, and had ones through a malignity in our nature, which shame conceals, and example sets at liberty.
There are follies as catching as contagious disorders.
It is not expedient or wise to examine our friends too closely; few persons are raised in our esteem by a close examination.
It is far better to be deceived than undeceived by those whom we tenderly love.