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
It is easy to be wise on behalf of others than to be so for ourselves.
It is great folly to wish to be wise all alone.
It's the height of folly to want to be the only wise one.
It is easier to be wise for others than for ourselves.
Our wisdom lies as much at the mercy of fortune as our possessions do.
To think to be wise alone is a very great folly.
The constancy of sages is nothing but the art of locking up their agitation in their hearts.
Nothing is given so profusely as advice.
Few people have the wisdom to prefer the criticism that would do them good, to the praise that deceives them.
The desire to be thought clever often prevents a man from becoming so.
The strongest symptom of wisdom in man is his being sensible of his own follies.
As we grow older, we increase in folly--and in wisdom.
We give advice, but we cannot give the wisdom to profit by it.
As it is the characteristic of great wits to say much in few words, so small wits seem to have the gift of speaking much and saying nothing.