François de La Rochefoucauld may refer to:
It is with an old love as it is with old age a man lives to all the miseries, but is dead to all the pleasures.
We had better appear what we are, than affect to appear what we are not.
Some beautiful things are more dazzling when they are still imperfect than when they have been too perfectly crafted.
The only thing that should surprise us is that there are still some things that can surprise us.
Instead of considering that the worst way to persuade or please others is to try thus strongly to please ourselves, and that to listen well and to answer well are some of the greatest charms we can have in conversation.
Not all who discharge their debts of gratitude should flatter themselves that they are grateful.
Perfect behavior is born of complete indifference.
We sometimes think that we hate flattery, but we only hate the manner in which it is done. [Fr. , On croit quelquefoir hair la flatterie; maid on ne hait que a maniere de flatter. ]
The more we love, the nearer we are to hate.
The moderation of fortunate people comes from the calm which good fortune gives to their tempers.
We are much harder on people who betray us in small ways than on people who betray others in great ones.
Sincerity is a certain openness of heart. It is to be found in very few, and what we commonly look upon to be so is only a cunningsort of dissimulation, to insinuate ourselves into the confidence of others.
Clemency, which we make a virtue of, proceeds sometimes from vanity, sometimes from indolence, often from fear, and almost always from a mixture of all three.
Good taste comes more from the judgment than from the mind.
The contempt of riches in the philosophers was a concealed desire of revenging on fortune the injustice done to their merit, by despising the good she denied them.
The qualities we have, make us so ridiculous as those which we affect.
There are no events so disastrous that adroit men do not draw some advantage from them, nor any so fortunate that the imprudent cannot turn to their own prejudice.
Most men expose themselves in battle enough to save their honor, few wish to do so more than sufficiently, or than is necessary to make the design for which they expose themselves succeed.
Our desires always disappoint us; for though we meet with something that gives us satisfaction, yet it never thoroughly answers our expectation. [However disappointment can always be removed if we remember it could have turned out worse. ]
It is easier to be wise for others than for ourselves.