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
One forgives to the degree that one loves.
Luxury and excessive refinement are sure forerunners of the decadence of states, because when all individuals seek their own interests they neglect the public weal.
We arrive at the various stages of life quite as novices.
One can no more look steadily at death than at the sun.
We come altogether fresh and raw into the several stages of life, and often find ourselves without experience, despite our years.
Quarrels would not last long if the fault was only on one side.
There is a form of eminence which does not depend on fate; it is an air which sets us apart and seems to prtend great things; it is the value which we unconsciously attach to ourselves; it is the quality which wins us deference of others; more than birth, position, or ability, it gives us ascendance.
When our hatred is violent, it sinks us even beneath those we hate.
Our enemies' opinion of us comes closer to the truth than our own.
One cannot answer for his courage when he has never been in danger.
He who lives without folly isn't so wise as he thinks.
How deceitful hope may be, yet she carries us on pleasantly to the end of life.
True love is like ghosts, which everyone talks about and few have seen.
Many people despise wealth, but few know how to give it away.