Francois VI Duc de La Rochefoucauld
Francois VI Duc de La Rochefoucauld
cute-love everybody few love talks true
True love is like ghosts, which everybody talks about and few have seen.
french-writer frequently vices virtues
Our virtues are most frequently but vices in disguise.
becomes doubt entirely madness pass soon stops
Live on doubts; it becomes madness or stops entirely as soon as we pass from doubt to certainty.
admire love whom
We love those who admire us, but not those whom we admire.
admire french-writer love
We always love those that admire us, but we do not always love those we admire.
detail good happened last memory recall
Why is our memory good enough to recall to the last detail things that have happened to us, yet not good enough to recall how often we have told them to the same person.
evil good order
We often do good in order that we may do evil with impunity.
actions ashamed behind finest motives understood
We should often be ashamed of our finest actions if the world understood all the motives behind them.
eloquent man natural passions persuasive rules simplest
The passions are the only advocates which always persuade. They are a natural art, the rules of which are infallible; and the simplest man with passion will be more persuasive than the most eloquent without.
affect qualities quality ridiculous
We are never so ridiculous by the qualities we have, as by those we affect to have.
cannot contentment seek useless
When we cannot find contentment in ourselves, it is useless to seek it elsewhere.
badly egotism ourselves rather speak talk
We would rather speak badly of ourselves than not talk about ourselves at all.
homage hypocrisy pays vice
Hypocrisy is the homage that vice pays to virtue.
clever evil extent full hardly man recognize
There is hardly a man clever enough to recognize the full extent of the evil he does.