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Hope And Fear Are Inseparable. There Is No Hope Without Fear, Nor Any Fear Without Hope.

-Francois De La Rochefoucauld

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Hope And Fear Are

Francois De La Rochefoucauld

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Hope And Fear Are Inseparable. There Is No Hope Without Fear, Nor Any Fear Without Hope.

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It Is Easier To Fall In Love When You Are Out Of It Than To Get Out Of It When You Are In.

Falling In Love

What Seems To Be Generosity Is Often No More Than Disguised Ambition, Which Overlooks A Small Interest In Order To Secure A Great One.

Nature Creates Ability; Luck Provides It With Opportunity.

Some Disguised Deceits Counterfeit Truth So Perfectly That Not To Be Taken In By Them Would Be An Error Of Judgment.

The Violence Done Us By Others Is Often Less Painful Than That Which We Do To Ourselves.

Passion Very Often Makes The Wisest Men Fools, And Very Often Too Inspires The Greatest Fools With Wit.

Sometimes We Meet A Fool With Wit, Never One With Discretion.

The Passions Of Youth Are Not More Dangerous To Health Than Is The Lukewarmness Of Old Age.

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

One Is Never Fortunate Or As Unfortunate As One Imagines.

We May Say Of Agreeableness, As Distinct From Beauty, That It Consists In A Symmetry Of Which We Know Not The Rules, And A Secret Conformity Of The Features To Each Other, As Also To The Air And Complexion Of The Person.

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.

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

Love Has Its Name Borrowed By A Great Number Of Dealings And Affairs That Are Attributed To It--in Which It Has No Greater Part Than The Doge In What Is Done At Venice.

You Are Never So Easily Fooled As When Trying To Fool Someone Else.

Nature Has Concealed At The Bottom Of Our Minds Talents And Abilities Of Which We Are Not Aware.

True Love Is Like Ghosts, Which Everyone Talks About And Few Have Seen.

Our Distrust Of Another Justifies His Deceit.

The World More Often Rewards The Appearances Of Merit Than Merit Itself.

Unfaithfulness Ought To Extinguish Love, And We Should Not Be Jealous When There Is Reason To Be. Only Those Who Give No Grounds For Jealousy Are Worthy Of It.

What Is Called Generosity Is Usually Only The Vanity Of Giving; We Enjoy The Vanity More Than The Thing Given.

The Generality Of Men Have, Like Plants, Latent Properties, Which Chance Brings To Light.

Generosity Is The Vanity Of Giving.

The Boldest Stroke And Best Act Of Friendship Is Not To Disclose Our Own Failings To A Friend, But To Show Him His Own.

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

Fearlessness Is A More Than Ordinary Strength Of Mind, Which Raises The Soul Above The Troubles, Disorders, And Emotions Which Theprospect Of Great Dangers Are Used To Produce. And By This Inward Strength It Is That Heroes Preserve Themselves In A Calm And Quiet State, And Enjoy A Presence Of Mind And The Free Use Of Their Reason In The Midst Of Those Terrible Accidents That Amaze And Confound Other People.

Presence Of Mind

In Love Deceit Almost Always Outstrips Distrust.

It Is Easy To Be Wise On Behalf Of Others Than To Be So For Ourselves.

It Is Easier To Know Men In General, Than Men In Particular.

A Man Does Not Please Long When He Has Only Species Of Wit.

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

Coquetry Is The Essential Characteristic, And The Prevalent Humor Of Women; But They Do Not All Practice It, Because The Coquetry Of Some Is Restrained By Fear Or By Reason.

The Gallantry Of The Mind Consists In Agreeable Flattery.

The Reason Why So Few People Are Agreeable In Conversation Is That Each Is Thinking More About What He Intends To Say Than Others Are Saying.

Listening To Others

The Defects Of The Mind, Like Those Of The Face, Grow Worse With Age.

Nothing Is Given So Profusely As Advice.

When Our Vices Leave Us, We Like To Imagine It Is We Who Are Leaving Them.

We May Sooner Be Brought To Love Them That Hate Us, Than Them That Love Us More Than We Would Have Them Do.

The Cunningest Dissimulation Is When A Man Pretends To Be Caught In The Traps Others Set For Him; And A Man Is Never So Easily Over-reached As When He Is Contriving To Over-reach Others.

A Fashionable Woman Is Always In Love - With Herself.

What Makes False Reckoning, As Regards Gratitude, Is That The Pride Of The Giver And The Receiver Cannot Agree As To The Value Of The Benefit.

If One Judges Love By The Majority Of Its Effects, It Is More Like Hatred Than Like Friendship.

None But Great Men Are Capable Of Having Great Flaws.

People Would Never Fall In Love If They Hadn't Heard Love Talked About.

The Blindness Of Men Is The Most Dangerous Effect Of Their Pride; It Seems To Nourish And Augment It; It Deprives Them Of Knowledge Of Remedies Which Can Solace Their Miseries And Can Cure Their Faults.

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

Those That Have Had Great Passions Esteem Themselves For The Rest Of Their Lives Fortunate And Unfortunate In Being Cured Of Them.

The Passions Possess A Certain Injustice And Self Interest Which Makes It Dangerous To Follow Them, And In Reality We Should Distrust Them Even When They Appear Most Trustworthy.

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

Sometimes Accidents Happen In Life From Which We Have Need Of A Little Madness To Extricate Ourselves Successfully

He Who Imagines He Can Do Without The World Deceives Himself Much; But He Who Fancies The World Cannot Do Without Him Is Still More Mistaken.

Sometimes We Lose Friends For Whose Loss Our Regret Is Greater Than Our Grief, And Others For Whom Our Grief Is Greater Than Our Regret.

As Long As We Love, We Can Forgive.

Indolence, Languid As It Is, Often Masters Both Passions And Virtues.

The Wind Which Snuffs The Candle Fans The Fire.

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

A Great Many Men's Gratitude Is Nothing But A Secret Desire To Hook In More Valuable Kindnesses Hereafter.

A Certain Harmony Should Be Kept Between Actions And Ideas If We Want To Fully Develop The Effects They Can Produce.

It Is Often Merely For An Excuse That We Say Things Are Impossible.

Positive Thinking

Love Of Glory, Fear Of Shame, Greed For Fortune, The Desire To Make Life Agreeable And Comfortable, And The Wish To Depreciate Others - All Of These Are Often The Causes Of The Bravery That Is Spoken So Highly Of By Men.

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

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

Those Who Are Themselves Incapable Of Great Crimes Are Ever Backward To Suspect Others.

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

Criticism Sometimes Is Really Praise, And Praise Sometimes Slander.

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

We Are Never So Easily Deceived As When We Imagine We Are Deceiving Others.

Deceiving Others

Few Things Are Impracticable In Themselves; And It Is For Want Of Application, Rather Than Of Means, That Men Fail To Succeed.

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.

The Passions Often Engender Their Contraries.

It Is Easier For A Man To Be Thought Fit For An Employment That He Has Not, Than For One He Stands Already Possessed Of, And Is Exercising.

The Judgments Our Enemies Make About Us Come Nearer To The Truth Than Those We Make About Ourselves.

The Health Of The Soul Is As Precarious As That Of The Body; For When We Seem Secure From Passions, We Are No Less In Danger Of Their Infection Than We Are Of Falling Ill When We Appear To Be Well.

Some Beautiful Things Are More Dazzling When They Are Still Imperfect Than When They Have Been Too Perfectly Crafted.

It Is Not Always From Valor Or From Chastity That Men Are Brave, And Women Chaste.

The Older A Fool Is, The Worse He Is.

However Glorious An Action In Itself, It Ought Not To Pass For Great If It Be Not The Effect Of Wisdom And Intention.

Great And Glorious Events Which Dazzle The Beholder Are Represented By Politicians As The Outcome Of Grand Designs Whereas They Are Usually Products Of Temperaments And Passions.

To Establish Yourself In The World A Person Must Do All They Can To Appear Already Established.

To Safeguard One's Health At The Cost Of Too Strict A Diet Is A Tiresome Illness, Indeed.

Most Men, Like Plants, Possess Hidden Qualities Which Chance Discovers.

Gratitude Is Like The Good Faith Of Traders: It Maintains Commerce, And We Often Pay, Not Because It Is Just To Discharge Our Debts, But That We May More Readily Find People To Trust Us.

Praise Is A More Ingenious, Concealed, And Subtle Kind Of Flattery, That Satisfies Both The Giver And The Receiver, Though By Verydifferent Ways. The One Accepts It As A Reward Due To His Merit; The Other Gives It That He May Be Looked Upon As A Just And Discerning Person.

Before Strongly Desiring Anything, We Should Look Carefully Into The Happiness Of Its Present Owner.

The Art Of Putting Into Play Mediocre Qualities Often Begets More Reputation Than Is Achieved By True Merit.

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

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

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

The Only Good Copies Are Those Which Make Us See The Absurdity Of Bad Originals.

We Do Not Despise All Those Who Have Vices, But We Do Despise Those That Have No Virtue.

Some People Are Like Popular Songs That You Only Sing For A Short Time.

Fortunate Persons Hardly Ever Amend Their Ways: They Always Imagine That They Are In The Right When Fortune Upholds Their Bad Conduct.

The Smallest Fault Of Women Who Give Themselves Up To Love Is To Love.

The Only Good Imitations Are Those That Poke Fun At Bad Originals.

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

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

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.

We Like To Read Others But We Do Not Like To Be Read.

Understanding Others

Though Confidence Is Very Fine, And Makes The Future Sunny; I Want No Confidence For Mine, I'd Rather Have The Money

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

People Always Complain About Their Memories, Never About Their Minds.

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

A Man Is Sometimes Better Off Deceived About The One He Loves, Than Undeceived.

Hypocrisy Is The Homage Vice Pays To Virtue.

Though Most Of The Friendships Of The World Ill Deserve The Name Of Friendships; Yet A Man May Make Use Of Them On Occasion, As Of A Traffic Whose Returns Are Uncertain, And In Which 'tis Usual To Be Cheated.

The Greatest Part Of Intimate Confidences Proceed From A Desire Either To Be Pitied Or Admired.

The Only Security Is Courage.

We Are Better Pleased To See Those On Whom We Confer Benefits Than Those From Whom We Receive Them.

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

Our Repentances Are Generally Not So Much A Concern And Remorse For The Harm We Have Done, As A Fear Of The Harm We May Have Brought Upon Ourselves.

Virtue Is To The Soul What Health Is Tot He Body.

Love, All Agreeable As It Is, Charms More By The Fashion In Which It Displays Itself, Than By Its Own True Merit.

History Never Embraces More Than A Small Part Of Reality

Jealousy Is Not So Much The Love Of Another As The Love Of Ourselves.

Before We Set Our Hearts Too Much Upon Anything, Let Us Examine How Happy They Are, Who Already Possess It.

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.

To Understand Matters Rightly We Should Understand Their Details; And As That Knowledge Is Almost Infinite, Our Knowledge Is Always Superficial And Imperfect.

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

Avarice Is More Opposite To Economy Than Liberality.

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.

The Only Thing That Should Surprise Us Is That There Are Still Some Things That Can Surprise Us.

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

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

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.]

There Are Heroes In Evil As Well As In Good.

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

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.

Ridicule Dishonors A Man More Than Dishonor Does.

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

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

Jealousy Is Always Born With Love, But Does Not Die With It. In Jealousy There Is More Of Self-love Than Of Love To Another.

Conceit Causes More Conversation Than Wit.

We Easily Forget Crimes That Are Known To None But Ourselves.

Quarrels Would Not Last Long If The Fault Was Only On One Side.

What Makes Us So Often Discontented With Those Who Transact Business For Us Is That They Almost Always Abandon The Interest Of Their Friends For The Interest Of The Business, Because They Wish To Have The Honor Of Succeeding In That Which They Have Undertaken.

The Evil That We Do Does Not Attract To Us So Much Persecution And Hatred As Our Good Qualities.

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

What Makes Lovers Never Tire Of One Another Is That They Talk Always About Themselves.

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

Opportunity Makes Us Known To Others, But More To Ourselves.

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

The Reason Why Lovers And Their Mistresses Never Tire Of Being Together Is That They Are Always Talking Of Themselves. [fr., Ce Qui Fait Que Amants Et Les Maitresses Ne S'ennuient Point D'etre Ensemble; C'est Qu'ils Parlent Toujours D'eux Memes.]

Hope And Fear Are Inseparable. There Is No Hope Without Fear, Nor Any Fear Without Hope.

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

Pity Is Often A Reflection Of Our Own Evils In The Ills Of Others. It Is A Delicate Foresight Of The Troubles Into Which We May Fall.

When The Philosophers Despised Riches, It Was Because They Had A Mind To Vindicate Their Own Merit, And Take Revenge Upon The Injustice Of Fortune By Vilifying Those Enjoyments Which She Had Not Given Them.

Nature Seems At Each Man's Birth To Have Marked Out The Bounds Of His Virtues And Vices, And To Have Determined How Good Or How Wicked That Man Shall Be Capable Of Being.

Pride Does Not Wish To Owe And Vanity Does Not Wish To Pay.

Politeness Of The Mind Is To Have Delicate Thoughts

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.

Nothing Is More Contagious Than Example, And No Man Does Any Exceeding Good Or Exceeding Ill But It Spawns New Deeds Of The Same Kind. The Good We Imitate Through Emulation, The Ill Through The Malignity Of Our Nature, Which Shame Keeps Locked Up, But Example Sets Free.

Usually We Praise Only To Be Praised.

Whilst Weakness And Timidity Keep Us To Our Duty, Virtue Has Often All The Honor.

Truth Has Scarce Done So Much Good In The World As The False Appearances Of It Have Done Hurt.

We Should Often Feel Ashamed Of Our Best Actions If The World Could See All The Motives Which Produced Them.

Happy People Rarely Correct Their Faults; They Consider Themselves Vindicated, Since Fortune Endorses Their Evil Ways.

We Should Not Be Much Concerned About Faults We Have The Courage To Own.

Of All Our Faults, The One That We Excuse Most Easily Is Idleness.

Jealousy Is Not Love, But Self-love.

The Virtues And Vices Are All Put In Motion By Interest.

The Constancy Of Sages Is Nothing But The Art Of Locking Up Their Agitation In Their Hearts.

It Is Far Better To Be Deceived Than Undeceived By Those Whom We Tenderly Love.

However Much We May Distrust Men's Sincerity, We Always Believe They Speak To Us More Sincerely Than To Others.

Man Only Blames Himself In Order That He May Be Praised.

It Is A Mighty Error To Suppose That None But Violent And Strong Passions, Such As Love And Ambition, Are Able To Vanquish The Rest. Even Idleness, As Feeble And Languishing As It Is, Sometimes Reigns Over Them; It Usurps The Throne And Sits Paramount Over All The Designs And Actions Of Our Lives, And Imperceptibly Wastes And Destroys All Our Passions And All Our Virtues.

Great Souls Are Not Those Who Have Fewer Passions And More Virtues Than Others, But Only Those Who Have Greater Designs.

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

A Good Woman Is A Hidden Treasure; Who Discovers Her Will Do Well Not To Boast About It.

The Only Thing Constant In Life Is Change

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.

Nothing Is So Catching As Example.

A Man Often Imagines That He Acts, When He Is Acted Upon.

There Is No Disguise Which Can Hide Love For Long Where It Exists, Or Simulate It Where It Does Not.

Too Great Refinement Is False Delicacy, And True Delicacy Is Solid Refinement.

However Greatly We Distrust The Sincerity Of Those We Converse With, Yet Still We Think They Tell More Truth To Us Than To Anyone Else.

We Would Rather See Those To Whom We Do Good, Than Those Who Do Good To Us.

We Never Desire Strongly, What We Desire Rationally.

As We Grow Older We Grow Both More Foolish And Wiser At The Same Time.

It Is Much Better To Learn To Deal With The Ills We Have Now Than To Speculate On Those That May Befall Us.

Jealousy Is The Greatest Of All Evils, And The One That Arouses The Least Pity In The Person Who Causes It.

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

It Is More Difficult For A Man To Be Faithful To His Mistress When He Is Favored Than When He Is Ill Treated By Her.

To Establish Oneself In The World, One Does All One Can To Seem Established There Already.

If We Are Incapable Of Finding Peace In Ourselves, It Is Pointless To Search Elsewhere.

The Dullness Of Certain People Is Sometimes A Sufficient Security Against The Attack Of An Artful Man.

Sometimes, Occasions Occur In Life Which Demand You To Be A Little Foolish In Order To Skillfully Extricate Yourself.

A Clever Man Reaps Some Benefit From The Worst Catastrophe, And A Fool Can Turn Even Good Luck To His Disadvantage.

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

Passion Often Makes Fools Of The Wisest Men And Gives The Silliest Wisdom.

Female Gossips Are Generally Actuated By Active Ignorance.

He Who Refuses Praise The First Time That It Is Offered Does So Because He Would Hear It A Second Time.

Very Few People Are Acquainted With Death. They Undergo It, Commonly, Not So Much Out Of Resolution As Custom And Insensitivity; And Most Men Die Because They Cannot Help It.

We Are Much Harder On People Who Betray Us In Small Ways Than On People Who Betray Others In Great Ones.

We Have More Ability Than Will Power, And It Is Often An Excuse To Ourselves That We Imagine That Things Are Impossible.

Fortune Never Appears So Blind As To Those To Whom She Does No Good.

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.

The Shame That Arises From Praise Which We Do Not Deserve Often Makes Us Do Things We Should Otherwise Never Have Attempted.

One Can Find Women Who Have Never Had One Love Affair, But It Is Rare Indeed To Find Any Who Have Had Only One.

It Is Not Expedient Or Wise To Examine Our Friends Too Closely; Few Persons Are Raised In Our Esteem By A Close Examination.

Our Good Qualities Expose Us More To Hatred And Persecution Than All The Ill We Do.

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