The height of cleverness is being able to conceal it.
—Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Topics: Humility, Modesty
It is easier to appear worthy of a position one does not hold, than of the office which one fills.
—Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Topics: Growth
We are nearer loving those who hate us than those who love us more than we wish.
—Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Topics: Love
When a man finds no peace within himself, it is useless to seek it elsewhere.
—Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Topics: Peace
Our envy always lasts longer than the happiness of those we envy.
—Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Topics: Jealousy
One forgives to the degree that one loves.
—Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Topics: Forgiveness
Neither the sun nor death can be looked at with a steady eye
—Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Topics: Death
He is not a reasonable man who by chance stumbles upon reason, but he who derives it from knowledge, from discernment, and from taste.
—Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Topics: Reason
As we grow old we become both more foolish and more wise.
—Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Topics: Age
The passions are the only orators who never fail to persuade.—They are nature’s art of eloquence, the rules of which never fail; and the weakest man, moved by passion, is more eloquent than the strongest who has none.
—Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Topics: Enthusiasm, Passion
The labor of the body frees us from the pains of the mind, and thus makes the poor happy.
—Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Topics: The Body
Perfect virtue is to do unwitnessed what we should be capable of doing before all the world.
—Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Topics: Virtue
It is much easier to suppress a first desire than to satisfy those that follow.
—Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Topics: Desire, Desires
To safeguard one’s health at the cost of too strict a diet is a tiresome illness indeed.
—Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Topics: Diet
In the intercourse of life, we please more by our faults than by our good qualities.
—Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Topics: Faults
Absence lessens half-hearted passions, and increases great ones, as the wind puts out candles and yet stirs up the fire.
—Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Topics: Romance, Love, Absence
What causes us to like new acquaintances is not so much weariness of our old ones, or the pleasure of change, as disgust at not being sufficiently admired by those who know us too well, and the hope of being admired more by those who do not know so much about us.
—Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Topics: Friendship
Fortune and humor govern the world.
—Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Topics: Humor
We give advice, but we cannot give the wisdom to profit by it.
—Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Topics: Advice, Profit
Nothing so much prevents our being natural as the desire of appearing so.
—Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Topics: Style, Appearance, Manners, Desire
To listen closely and reply well is the highest perfection we are able to attain in the art of conversation.
—Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Topics: Listening
To know how to hide one’s ability is great skill.
—Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Topics: Ability
The constancy of sages is nothing but the art of locking up their agitation in their hearts.
—Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Topics: Wisdom, Self-Control
As love increases, prudence diminishes.
—Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Topics: Love
Idleness is more an infirmity of the mind than of the body.
—Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Topics: Idleness
It is a wearisome disease to preserve health by too strict a regimen.
—Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Topics: Health
Hypocrisy is the homage that vice pays to virtue.
—Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Topics: One liners, Hypocrisy
The common foible of women who have been handsome is to forget that they are no longer so.
—Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Topics: Women, Beauty
There are few good women who do not tire of their role.
—Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Topics: Goodness
Hope, deceitful as it is, serves at least to lead us to the end of our lives by an agreeable route.
—Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Topics: Hope
Wondering Whom to Read Next?
- Jean de La Bruyere French Author
- Alexandre Dumas pere French Novelist, Playwright
- Antoine de Saint-Exupery French Novelist, Aviator
- Francois-Rene de Chateaubriand French Writer, Statesman
- Antoine Arnauld French Theologian
- Rene Descartes French Mathematician, Philosopher
- Michel de Montaigne French Essayist
- Marguerite Duras French Novelist, Playwright
- Andre Maurois French Novelist, Biographer
- Edgar Quinet French Intellectual
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