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Everyone Agrees That A Secret Should Be Kept Intact, But Everyone Does Not Agree As To The Nature And Importance Of Secrecy. Too Often We Consult Ourselves As To What We Should Say, What We Should Leave Unsaid. There Are Few Permanent Secrets, And The Scruple Against Revealing Them Will Not Last Forever.

-Francois De La Rochefoucauld

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Everyone Agrees That A

Francois De La Rochefoucauld

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Everyone Agrees That A Secret Should Be Kept Intact, But Everyone Does Not Agree As To The Nature And Importance Of Secrecy. Too Often We Consult Ourselves As To What We Should Say, What We Should Leave Unsaid. There Are Few Permanent Secrets, And The Scruple Against Revealing Them Will Not Last Forever.

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L'absence Diminue Les Mediocres Passions, Et Augmente Les Grandes,comme Le Vent Eteint Les Bougies, Et Allume Le Feu. Absence Diminishes Commonplace Passions, And Increases Great Ones, As Wind Extinguishes Candles And Kindles Fire.

The Desire Of Appearing Clever Often Prevents Our Becoming So.

How Deceitful Hope May Be, Yet She Carries Us On Pleasantly To The End Of Life.

Too Great Cleverness Is But Deceptive Delicacy, True Delicacy Is The Most Substantial Cleverness.

Whatever Discoveries We May Have Made In The Regions Of Self-love, There Still Remain Many Unknown Lands.

Narrow Minds Think Nothing Right That Is Above Their Own Capacity.

The More One Loves A Mistress, The More One Is Ready To Hate Her.

Ability Wins Us The Esteem Of The True Men; Luck, That Of The People.

The Simplest Man With Passion Will Be More Persuasive Than The Most Eloquent Without.

Tis A Sort Of Coquetry To Boast That We Never Coquet.

Our Aversion To Lying Is Commonly A Secret Ambition To Make What We Say Considerable, And Have Every Word Received With A Religious Respect.

Extreme Boredom Provides Its Own Antidote.

Innocence Does Not Find Near So Much Protection As Guilt.

People That Are Conceited Of Their Own Merit Take Pride In Being Unfortunate, That Themselves And Others May Think Them Considerable Enough To Be The Envy And The Mark Of Fortune.

The Vivacity That Augments With Years Is Not Far From Folly.

Those Who Most Obstinately Oppose The Most Widely-held Opinions More Often Do So Because Of Pride Than Lack Of Intelligence. They Find The Best Places In The Right Set Already Taken, And They Do Not Want Back Seats.

The Clemency Of Princes Is Often But Policy To Win The Affections Of The People.

Moderation Is Represented As A Virtue In Order To Restrain The Ambition Of Great Men, And To Console Those Of A Meaner Condition In Their Lesser Merit And Fortune.

The Most Sure Method Of Subjecting Yourself To Be Deceived Is To Consider Yourself More Cunning Than Others.

He Is Safe Who Admits No One To His Confidence.

The Greater Part Of Mankind Judge Of Men Only By Their Fashionableness Or Their Fortune.

That Man, We May Be Sure, Is A Person Of True Worth, Whom Those Who Envy Him Most Are Yet Forced To Praise.

Jealousy Lives Upon Doubts. It Becomes Madness Or Ceases Entirely As Soon As We Pass From Doubt To Certainty.

The Common Foible Of Women Who Have Been Handsome Is To Forget That They Are No Longer So.

For Envy, Like Lightning, Generally Strikes At The Top Or Any Point Which Sticks Out From The Ordinary Level. Lucretius, De Rerum Natura Our Envy Always Outlives The Felicity Of Its Object.

Commonplace Minds Usually Condemn What Is Beyond The Reach Of Their Understanding.

Boredom ... Causes Us To Neglect More Duties Than Does Interest.

The Daily Employment Of Cunning Marks A Little Mind, It Generally Happens That Those Who Resort To It In One Respect To Protect Themselves Lay Themselves Open To Attack In Another.

We May Say Of Agreeableness, As Distinct From Beauty, That It Is A Symmetry Whose Rules Are Unknown.

Women's Virtue Is Frequently Nothing But A Regard To Their Own Quiet And A Tenderness For Their Reputation.

Passion Makes Idiots Of The Cleverest Men, And Makes The Biggest Idiots Clever.

Nature Creates Ability; Luck Provides It With Opportunity.

We Rarely Think People Have Good Sense Unless They Agree With Us.

Envy Is More Incapable Of Reconciliation Than Hatred Is.

We Only Confess Our Little Faults To Persuade People That We Have No Big Ones.

Keeping Secrets

Men More Easily Renounce Their Interests Than Their Tastes.

We Judge So Superficially Of Things, That Common Words And Actions Spoke And Done In An Agreeable Manner, With Some Knowledge Of What Passes In The World, Often Succeed Beyond The Greatest Ability.

What Renders Other People's Vanity Insufferable Is That It Wounds Our Own.

It Is With True Love As It Is With Ghosts; Everyone Talks About It, But Few Have Seen It.

The Desire To Be Thought Clever Often Prevents A Man From Becoming So.

Sometimes There Are Accidents In Our Lives The Skillful Extrication From Which Demands A Little Folly.

A True Friend Is The Most Precious Of All Possessions And The One We Take The Least Thought About Acquiring.

Ridicule Dishonors A Man More Than Dishonor Does.

There Is An Excess Both In Happiness And Misery Above Our Power Of Sensation.

He Who Lives Without Folly Isn't So Wise As He Thinks.

Many People Despise Wealth, But Few Know How To Give It Away.

The Strongest Symptom Of Wisdom In Man Is His Being Sensible Of His Own Follies.

All The Passions Make Us Commit Faults; Love Makes Us Commit The Most Ridiculous Ones.

There Is No Accident So Unfortunate But Wise Men Will Make Some Advantage Of It, Nor Any So Entirely Fortunate But Fools May Turn It To Their Own Prejudice.

The Tranquility Or Agitation Of Our Temper Does Not Depend So Much On The Big Things Which Happen To Us In Life, As On The Pleasant Or Unpleasant Arrangements Of The Little Things Which Happen Daily.

When The Soul Is Ruffled By The Remains Of One Passion, It Is More Disposed To Entertain A New One Than When It Is Entirely Curedand At Rest From All.

What Makes Us So Bitter Against People Who Outwit Us Is That They Think Themselves Cleverer Than We Are.

The Extreme Delight We Experience In Talking About Ourselves Should Warn Us That Those Who Listen Do Not Share It.

We Often Persuade Ourselves To Love People Who Are More Powerful Than We Are, Yet Interest Alone Produces Our Friendship; We Do Not Give Our Hearts Away For The Good We Wish To Do, But For That We Expect To Receive.

We Are So Used To Dissembling With Others That In Time We Come To Deceive And Dissemble With Ourselves.

There Are Few People Who Are More Often In The Wrong Than Those Who Cannot Endure To Be So.

It Requires No Small Degree Of Ability To Know When To Conceal One's Ability.

Every One Complains Of A Poor Memory, No One Of A Weak Judgment.

Flattery Is A Kind Of Bad Money, To Which Our Vanity Gives Us Currency.

It Is Worth Nothing To Be Young Without Being Beautiful, Nor To Be Beautiful Without Being Young.

Everyone Praises His Heart, None Dare Praise Their Understanding.

Love Of Fame, Fear Of Disgrace, Schemes For Advancement, Desire To Make Life Comfortable And Pleasant, And The Urge To Humiliate Others Are Often At The Root Of The Valour Men Hold In Such High Esteem.

The Exceeding Delight We Take In Talking About Ourselves Should Give Us Cause To Fear That We Are Giving But Very Little Pleasureto Our Listeners.

It Is Impossible To Love A Second Time What We Have Really Ceased To Love.

Great Men Should Not Have Great Faults.

We Always Like Those Who Admire Us.

Consolation For Unhappiness Can Often Be Found In A Certain Satisfaction We Get From Looking Unhappy.

Almost Everyone Takes Pleasure In Repaying Trifling Obligations, Very Many Feel Gratitude For Those That Are Moderate; But There Is Scarcely Anyone Who Is Not Ungrateful For Those That Are Weighty.

The Surest Way To Be Deceived Is To Consider Oneself Cleverer Than Others.

All Who Know Their Own Minds Know Not Their Own Hearts.

Ideas Often Flash Across Our Minds More Complete Than We Could Make Them After Much Labor.

In Friendship As Well As Love, Ignorance Very Often Contributes More To Our Happiness Than Knowledge.

We Are Almost Always Bored By Just Those Whom We Must Not Find Boring.

We Frequently Are Troublesome To Others, When We Think It Impossible For Us Ever To Be So.

The Art Of Using Moderate Abilities To Advantage Often Brings Greater Results Than Actual Brilliance

Hope, Deceiving As It Is, Serves At Least To Lead Us To The End Of Our Lives By An Agreeable Route.

Avarice Is More Directly Opposed To Thrift Than Generosity Is.

Our Envy Always Outlives The Felicity Of Its Object.

Bravery In Simple Soldiers Is A Dangerous Trade, To Which They Have Bound Themselves To Get Their Livelihood.

When Our Hatred Is Violent, It Sinks Us Even Beneath Those We Hate.

Prudence And Love Are Inconsistent; In Proportion As The Last Increases, The Other Decreases.

Women Know Not The Whole Of Their Coquetry.

Moderation Is Like Sobriety: You Would Like To Have Some More, But Are Afraid Of Making Yourself Ill.

There Is At Least As Much Eloquence In The Voice, Eyes, And Air Of A Speaker As In His Choice Of Words.

A Man Cannot Please Long Who Has Only One Kind Of Wit.

When We Enlarge Upon The Affection Our Friends Have For Us, This Is Very Often Not So Much Out Of A Sense Of Gratitude As From A Desire To Persuade People Of Our Own Great Worth, That Can Deserve So Much Kindness.

There Is A Sort Of Love Whose Very Excessiveness Prevents The Lover's Being Jealous.

Being A Blockhead Is Sometimes The Best Security Against Being Cheated By A Man Of Wit.

The Generality Of Virtuous Women Are Like Hidden Treasures, They Are Safe Only Because Nobody Has Sought After Them.

The Mind Cannot Long Play The Heart's Role.

There Are Very Few People Who Are Not Ashamed Of Having Been In Love When They No Longer Love Each Other.

Whatever Ignominy Or Disgrace We Have Incurred, It Is Almost Always In Our Power To Reestablish Our Reputation.

We Do Not Praise Others, Ordinarily, But In Order To Be Praised Ourselves.

There Are Some Persons Who Only Disgust With Their Abilities, There Are Persons Who Please Even With Their Faults.

It Is As Easy To Deceive One's Self Without Perceiving It, As It Is Difficult To Deceive Others Without Their Finding Out.

Politeness Of Mind Consists In Thinking Chaste And Refined Thoughts.

He Is Not To Pass For A Man Of Reason Who Stumbles Upon Reason By Chance But He Who Knows It And Can Judge It And Has A True Taste For It.

A Resolution Never To Deceive Exposes A Man To Be Often Deceived.

We Arrive At The Various Stages Of Life Quite As Novices.

Hypocrisy Is The Homage Vice Pays To Virtue.

If One Acts Rightly And Honestly, It Is Difficult To Decide Whether It Is The Effect Of Integrity Or Skill.

There Are Certain People Fated To Be Fools; They Not Only Commit Follies By Choice, But Are Even Constrained To Do So By Fortune.

The Wind Which Snuffs The Candle Fans The Fire.

Smallness Of Mind Is The Cause Of Stubbornness, And We Do Not Credit Readily What Is Beyond Our View.

True Friendship Destroys Envy, And True Love Destroys Coquetterie.

In The Presence Of Some People We Inevitably Depart From Ourselves: We Are Inaccurate, We Say Things We Do Not Feel, And Talk Nonsense. When We Get Home We Are Conscious That We Have Made Fools Of Ourselves. Never Go Near These People.

We Often Forgive Those Who Bore Us, But We Cannot Forgive Those Whom We Bore.

When A Man Must Force Himself To Be Faithful In His Love, This Is Hardly Better Than Unfaithfulness.

There Are People Who Would Never Have Been In Love, Had They Never Heard Love Spoken Of.

To Boast That One Never Flirts Is Actually A Kind Of Flirtation.

We Sometimes Condemn The Present, By Praising The Past; And Show Our Contempt Of What Is Now, By Our Esteem For What Is No More.

Men Sometimes Think They Hate Flattery, But They Hate Only The Manner Of Flattering.

It Is A Species Of Coquetry To Make A Parade Of Never Practising It.

Fortune Cures Us Of Many Faults That Reason Could Not.

We Seldom Praise Anyone In Good Earnest, Except Such As Admire Us.

In The Human Heart There Is A Ceaseless Birth Of Passions, So That The Destruction Of One Is Almost Always The Establishment Of Another.

Everyone Takes Pleasure In Returning Small Obligations, Many People Acknowledge Moderate Ones; But There Are Only A Scarce Few Who Do Not Pay Great Ones With Ingratitude.

Not To Love Is In Love An Infallible Means Of Being Loved.

There Are Crimes Which Become Innocent And Even Glorious Through Their Splendor, Number And Excess.

Great Men's Honor Ought Always To Be Measured By The Methods They Made Use Of In Attaining It.

Misers Mistake Gold For Their Good; Whereas 'tis Only A Means Of Attaining It.

Self-love, As It Happens To Be Well Or Ill Conducted, Constitutes Virtue And Vice.

Were We Perfectly Acquainted With The Object, We Should Never Passionately Desire It.

We Label Judges With Having The Meanest Motives, And Yet We Desire That Our Reputation And Fame Should Depend Upon The Judgment Of Men, Who Are All, Either From Their Jealousy Or Preoccupation Or Want Of Intelligence, Opposed To Us - And Yet Despite Their Bias, Just For The Sake Of Making These Men Decide In Our Favor, We Peril In So Many Ways Both Our Peace And Our Life.

We Always Love Those Who Admire Us, But We Do Not Always Love Those Whom We Admire.

The Esteem Of Good Men Is The Reward Of Our Worth, But The Reputation Of The World In General Is The Gift Of Our Fate.

The Temperament That Produces A Talent For Little Things Is The Opposite Of That Required For Great Ones.

A Fool Has Not Material Enough To Be Good. [fr., Un Sot N'a Pas Assez D'etoffe Pour Etre Bon.]

Hope, Deceitful As It Is, Carries Us Through Life Agreeably Enough.

A Man's Wits Are Better Employed In Bearing Up Under The Misfortunes That Lie Upon Him At Present Than In Foreseeing Those That May Come Upon Him Hereafter.

Great Names Abase, Instead Of Elevating, Those Who Do Not Know How To Bear Them.

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.

It Is Necessary, In Order To Know Things Well, To Know The Particulars Of Them; And These, Being Infinite, Make Our Knowledge Eversuperficial And Imperfect.

We May Seem Great In An Employment Below Our Worth, But We Very Often Look Little In One That Is Too Big For Us.

We Are Never So Generous As When Giving Advice.

Pride Indemnifies Itself And Loses Nothing Even When It Casts Away Vanity.

Good Advice Is Something A Man Gives When He Is Too Old To Set A Bad Example.

A Man's Worth Has Its Season, Like Fruit.

Some Crimes Get Honor And Renown By Being Committed With More Pomp, By A Greater Number, And In A Higher Degree Of Wickedness Thanothers. Hence It Is That Public Robberies, Plunderings, And Sackings Have Been Looked Upon As Excellencies And Noble Achievements, And The Seizing Of Whole Countries, However Unjustly And Barbarously, Is Dignified With The Glorious Name Of Gaining Conquests.

If It Were Not For The Company Of Fools, A Witty Man Would Often Be Greatly At A Loss.

Absence Cools Moderate Passions, And Inflames Violent Ones; Just As The Wind Blows Out Candles, But Kindles Fires.

Civility Is A Desire To Receive Civilities, And To Be Accounted Well-bred.

The Trust That We Put In Ourselves Makes Us Feel Trust In Others.

Our Hopes, Often Though They Deceive Us, Lead Us Pleasantly Along The Path Of Life.

That Which Makes The Vanity Of Others Unbearable To Us Is That Which Wounds Our Own.

It Is Harder To Hide The Feelings We Have Than To Feign The Ones We Do Not Have.

All Women Are Flirts, But Some Are Restrained By Shyness, And Others By Sense.

We Can Never Be Certain Of Our Courage Until We Have Faced Danger.

Honest People Will Respect Us For Our Merit: The Public, For Our Luck.

It Is Easier To Understand Mankind In General Than Any Individual Man.

It Is Safer To Do Most Men Harm Than To Do Them Too Much Good.

True Bravery Is Shown By Performing Without Witness What One Might Be Capable Of Doing Before All The World.

The Reason Why Most Women Have So Little Sense Of Friendship Is That This Is But A Cold And Flat Passion To Those That Have Felt That Of Love.

Nothing Is So Catching As Example.

There Is Something To Be Said For Jealousy, Because It Only Designs The Preservation Of Some Good Which We Either Have Or Think Wehave A Right To. But Envy Is A Raging Madness That Cannot Bear The Wealth Or Fortune Of Others.

It Is Not Enough To Have Great Qualities; We Should Also Have The Management Of Them.

Self Discipline

We Forgive Just So Long As We Love.

Envy Is Destroyed By True Friendship, As Coquetry By True Love.

We Rarely Ever Perceive Others As Being Sensible, Except For Those Who Agree With Us.

The Happiness And Unhappiness Of Men Depends As Much On Their Ethics As On Fortune.

The Man Whom No One Pleases Is Much More Unhappy Than The Man Who Pleases No One.

There Are Various Sorts Of Curiosity; One Is From Interest, Which Makes Us Desire To Know That Which May Be Useful To Us; And The Other, From Pride Which Comes From The Wish To Know What Others Are Ignorant Of.

A Man For Whom Accident Discovers Sense, Is Not A Rational Being. A Man Only Is So Who Understands, Who Distinguishes, Who Tests It.

To Listen Closely And Reply Well Is The Highest Perfection We Are Able To Attain In The Art Of Conversation.

Nothing Prevents One From Appearing Natural As The Desire To Appear Natural.

There Are Heroes In Evil As Well As In Good.

We Are Nearer Loving Those Who Hate Us Than Those Who Love Us More Than We Wish.

To Think To Be Wise Alone Is A Very Great Folly.

One Man May Be More Cunning Than Another, But No One Can Be More Cunning Than All The World.

It Is A Wearisome Disease To Preserve Health By Too Strict A Regimen.

The Moderation Of People In Prosperity Is The Effect Of A Smooth And Composed Temper, Owing To The Calm Of Their Good Fortune.

The Measure Of Great Men Should Always Be Measured By The Means They Have Used To Acquire It.

We Exaggerate The Glory Of Some Men In Order To Detract From That Of Others.

Women Can More Easily Conquer Their Passion Than Their Coquetterie.

Constancy In Love Is Of Two Sorts: One Is The Effect Of New Excellencies That Are Always Presenting Themselves Afresh, And Attractour Affections Continually; The Other Is Only From A Point Of Honor, And A Taking Of Pride Not To Change.

Few Know How To Be Old.

Our Self-love Can Less Bear To Have Our Tastes Than Our Opinions Condemned.

It Is Difficult To Like Those Whom We Do Not Esteem; But It Is No Less So To Like Those Whom We Esteem More Than Ourselves.

Some People Resemble Ballads Which Are Only Sung For A Certain Time.

We Are More Often Treacherous Through Weakness Than Through Calculation.

Criticism Sometimes Is Really Praise, And Praise Sometimes Slander.

Penetration Has An Air Of Divination; It Pleases Our Vanity More Than Any Other Quality Of The Mind.

We Sometimes Differ More Widely From Ourselves Than We Do From Others.

We Do Not Lack Strength So Much As The Will To Use It; And Very Often Our Imagining That Things Are Impossible Is Nothing But An Excuse Of Our Own Contriving, To Reconcile Ourselves To Our Own Idleness.

It Is Not In The Power Of Even The Most Crafty Dissimulation To Conceal Love Long, Where It Really Is, Nor To Counterfeit It Long Where It Is Not.

He That Would Be A Great Man Must Learn To Turn Every Accident To Some Advantage.

Love Can No More Continue Without A Constant Motion Than Fire Can; And When Once You Take Hope And Fear Away, You Take From It Its Very Life And Being.

Only The Contemptible Fear Contempt.

The Better Part Of One's Life Consists Of His Friendships. Abraham Lincoln, Letter To Joseph Gillespie, July 13, 1849 Friendship Is Insipid To Those Who Have Experienced Love.

Good Taste Comes More From The Judgment Than From The Mind.

We Forget Our Faults Easily When They Are Known To Ourselves Alone.

However Great The Advantages Given Us By Nature, It Is Not She Alone, But Fortune With Her, Which Makes Heroes.

Our Virtues Are Often, In Reality, No Better Than Vices Disguised.

The Height Of Ability Consists In A Thorough Knowledge Of The Real Value Of Things, And Of The Genius Of The Age In Which We Live.

Men Frequently Do Good Only To Give Themselves Opportunity Of Doing Ill With Impunity.

There Are Heroes Of Wickedness, As There Are Of Goodness.

Some Counterfeits Reproduce So Very Well The Truth That It Would Be A Flaw Of Judgment Not To Be Deceived By Them.

However We May Conceal Our Passions Under The Veil ... There Is Always Some Place Where They Peep Out.

There Are Good Marriages, But There Are No Delightful Ones.

There May Be Talent Without Position, But There Is No Position Without Some Kind Of Talent.

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