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
Too great cleverness is but deceptive delicacy, true delicacy is the most substantial cleverness.
The caprice of our temper is even more whimsical than that of Fortune.
We have not enough strength to follow all our reason.
How can we expect another to keep our secret if we have been unable to keep it ourselves?
Why can we remember the tiniest detail that has happened to us, and not remember how many times we have told it to the same person.
There are few good women who do not tire of their role.
It is more often from pride than from defective understanding that people oppose established opinions: they find the best places taken in the good party and are reluctant to accept inferior ones.
Too great refinement is false delicacy, and true delicacy is solid refinement.
Reason alone is insufficient to make us enthusiastic in any matter.
There are certain defects which, well-mounted, glitter like virtue itself.
There is a kind of love, the excess of which forbids jealousy.
We are almost always wearied in the company of persons with whom we are not permitted to be weary.
The intellect of the generality of women serves more to fortify their folly than their reason.
Moderation resembles temperance. We are not so unwilling to eat more, as afraid of doing ourselves harm by it.