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It Is A Mistake To Imagine, That The Violent Passions Only, Such As Ambition And Love, Can Triumph Over The Rest. Idleness, Languid As It Is, Often Masters Them All; She Influences All Our Designs And Actions, And Insensibly Consumes And Destroys Both Passions And Virtues.

-Francois De La Rochefoucauld

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It Is A Mistake

Francois De La Rochefoucauld

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It Is A Mistake To Imagine, That The Violent Passions Only, Such As Ambition And Love, Can Triumph Over The Rest. Idleness, Languid As It Is, Often Masters Them All; She Influences All Our Designs And Actions, And Insensibly Consumes And Destroys Both Passions And Virtues.

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We Only Acknowledge Small Faults In Order To Make It Appear That We Are Free From Great Ones.

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.

Οur Own Distrust Somewhat Justifies The Deceit Of Others.

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

Often We Are Firm From Weakness, And Audacious From Timidity.

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

We Are All Strong Enough To Bear Other Men's Misfortunes.

Fancy Sets The Value On The Gifts Of Fortune.

We Are Easily Comforted For The Misfortunes Of Our Friends, When Those Misfortunes Give Us An Occasion Of Expressing Our Affection And Solicitude.

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

Happiness Does Not Consist In Things Themselves But In The Relish We Have Of Them; And A Man Has Attained It When He Enjoys What He Loves And Desires Himself, And Not What Other People Think Lovely And Desirable.

Marriage Is The Only War In Which You Sleep With The Enemy.

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

Perfect Courage Is To Do Without Witnesses What One Would Be Capable Of Doing With The World Looking On.

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.]

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.

Sincerity Is An Openness Of Heart; We Find It In Very Few People; What We Usually See Is Only An Artful Dissimulation To Win The Confidence Of Others.

Ordinary Men Commonly Condemn What Is Beyond Them.

The Man Who Leaves A Woman Best Pleased With Herself Is The One Whom She Will Soonest Wish To See.

Moderation Is An Ostentatious Proof Of Our Strength Of Character.

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

We Are Much Mistaken If We Think That Men Are Always Brave From A Principle Of Valor, Or Women Chaste From A Principle Of Modesty.

No Man Is Clever Enough To Know All The Evil He Does.

One Honor Won Is A Surety For More.

The Intellect Of The Generality Of Women Serves More To Fortify Their Folly Than Their Reason.

Nothing Is So Contagious As Example; And We Never Do Any Great Good Or Evil Which Does Not Produce Its Like.

What Renders Us So Changeable In Our Friendship Is, That It Is Difficult To Know The Qualities Of The Soul, But Easy To Know Those Of The Mind.

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

The Qualities We Have, Make Us So Ridiculous As Those Which We Affect.

Selfishness Is The Grand Moving Principle Of Nine-tenths Of Our Actions.

The Desire Which Urges Us To Deserve Praise Strengthens Our Good Qualities, And Praise Given To Wit, Valour, And Beauty, Tends To Increase Them.

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.

More Men Are Guilty Of Treason Through Weakness Than Any Studied Design To Betray.

No Accidents Are So Unlucky [bad] But That The Wise May Draw Some Advantage [good] From Them.

It Is Not Enough That We Should Succeed, But Our Friends Must Fail As Well.

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

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

Generosity Is The Vanity Of Giving.

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

We Say Little, When Vanity Does Not Make Us Speak.

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

If We Judge Love By Most Of Its Effects, It Resembles Rather Hatred Than Affection.

In Love Deceit Nearly Always Goes Further Than Mistrust.

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

In The Intercourse Of Life, We Please More By Our Faults Than By Our Good Qualities.

We Seldom Find Any Person Of Good Sense, Except Those Who Share Our Opinions.

Constancy In Love ... Is Only Inconstancy Confined To One Object.

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.

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

Reason Alone Is Insufficient To Make Us Enthusiastic In Any Matter.

Service Culture

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

Few Are Sufficiently Wise To Prefer Censure Which Is Useful To Praise Which Is Treacherous.

Moderation Is A Fear Of Falling Into That Envy And Contempt Which Those Who Grow Giddy With Their Good Fortune Quite Justly Draw Upon Themselves. It Is A Vain Boasting Of The Greatness Of Our Mind.

To Praise Great Actions Is In Some Sense To Share Them.

It Is Often Hard To Determine Whether A Clear, Open, And Honorable Proceeding Is The Result Of Goodness Or Of Cunning.

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

It Takes More Strength Of Character To Withstand Good Fortune Than Bad.

It Is Most Difficult To Speak When We Are Ashamed Of Being Silent.

When We Are Unable To Find Tranquility Within Ourselves, It Is Useless To Seek It Elsewhere.

A Clever Man Should Handle His Interests So That Each Will Fall In Suitable Order Of Their Value.

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

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.

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

Good And Bad Fortune Are Found Severally To Visit Those Who Have The Most Of The One Or The Other.

A Wise Man Should Order His Interests, And Set Them All In Their Proper Places. This Order Is Often Troubled By Greed, Which Putsus Upon Pursuing So Many Things At Once That, In Eagerness For Matters Of Less Consideration, We Grasp At Trifles, And Let Go Things Of Greater Value.

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

In Every Walk Of Life Each Man Puts On A Personality And Outward Appearance So As To Look What He Wants To Be Thought; In Fact You Might Say That Society Is Entirely Made Up Of Assumed Personalities.

Idleness And Fear Keeps Us In The Path Of Duty, But Our Virtue Often Gets The Praise.

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

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

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

Folly Pursues Us At All Periods Of Our Lives. If Someone Seems Wise It Is Only Because His Follies Are Proportionate To His Age And Fortune.

The Health Of The Soul Is Something We Can Be No More Sure Of Than That Of The Body; And Though A Man May Seem Far From The Passions, Yet He Is In As Much Danger Of Falling Into Them As One In A Perfect State Of Health Of Having A Fit Of Sickness.

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.

A Man Of Understanding Finds Less Difficulty In Submitting To A Wrong-headed Fellow, Than In Attempting To Set Him Right.

Sometimes We Think We Dislike Flattery, But It Is Only The Way It Is Done That We Dislike.

We Are Lazier In Our Minds Than In Our Bodies.

Moderation Is The Feebleness And Sloth Of The Soul, Whereas Ambition Is The Warmth And Activity Of It.

Humility Is Often Only Feigned Submission Which People Use To Render Others Submissive. It Is A Subterfuge Of Pride Which Lowers Itself In Order To Rise.

There Are People Who In Spite Of Their Merit Disgust Us And Others Who Please Us In Spite Of Their Faults.

When We Seek Reconciliation With Our Enemies, It Is Commonly Out Of A Desire To Better Our Own Condition, A Being Harassed And Tired Out With A State Of War, And A Fear Of Some Ill Accident Which We Are Willing To Prevent.

The Most Brilliant Fortunes Are Often Not Worth The Littleness Required To Gain Them.

The Fame Of Great Men Ought To Be Judged Always By Their Big, Fancy Names.

The Intention Of Never Deceiving Often Exposes Us To Deception.

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.

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

Keeping Secrets

The Truest Mark Of Being Born With Great Qualities Is To Be Born Without Envy.

It Is Pointless For A Woman To Be Young Unless Pretty, Or To Be Pretty Unless Young.

In Love, The Quickest Is Always The Best Cure.

There Are Some Bad Qualities Which Make Great Talents.

Some Good Qualities Are Like The Senses: Those Who Are Entirely Deprived Of Them Can Have No Notion Of Them.

It Is The Prerogative Of Great Men Only To Have Great Defects.

The Aversion To Lying Is Often A Hidden Ambition To Render Our Words Credible And Weighty, And To Attach A Religious Aspect To Our Conversation.

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

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

How Can We Be Answerable For What We Shall Want In The Future, Since We Have No Clear Idea Of What We Want Now?

Nothing Hinders A Thing From Being Natural So Much As The Straining Ourselves To Make It Seem So.

If We Did Not Have Pride, We Would Not Complain Of It In Others.

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

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

The Most Ingenious Men Continually Pretend To Condemn Tricking--but This Is Often Done That They May Use It More Conveniently Themselves, When Some Great Occasion Or Interest Offers Itself To Them.

It Is As Commendable To Think Well Of Oneself When Alone, As It Is Ridiculous To Speak Well Of Oneself Among Others.

Behind Many Acts That Are Thought Ridiculous There Lie Wise And Weighty Motives.

We Often Do Shallow Good In Order To Accomplish Evil With Impunity.

Tastes In Young People Are Changed By Natural Impetuosity, And In The Aged Are Preserved By Habit.

Men Are Inconsolable Concerning The Treachery Of Their Friends Or The Deceptions Of Their Enemies; And Yet They Are Often Very Highly Satisfied To Be Both Deceived And Betrayed By Their Own Selves.

Ridicule Dishonors A Man More Than Dishonor Does.

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.

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

How Can We Expect Another To Keep Our Secret If We Have Been Unable To Keep It Ourselves?

Keeping Secrets

Politeness Of Mind Consists In Thinking Chaste And Refined Thoughts.

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

Men Are Often So Foolish As To Boast And Value Themselves Upon Their Passions, Even Those That Are Most Vicious. But Envy Is A Passion So Full Of Cowardice And Shame That No One Every Ever Had The Confidence To Own It.

Philosophy Easily Triumphs Over Past And Future Ills; But Present Ills Triumph Over Philosophy.

The Appearances Of Goodness And Merit Often Meet With A Greater Reward From The World Than Goodness And Merit Themselves.

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

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

We Always Get Bored With Those Whom We Bore.

Generally Speaking, We Would Make A Good Bargain By Renouncing All The Good That People Say Of Us, Upon Condition They Would Say No Ill.

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

What Is Perfectly True Is Perfectly Witty.

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

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.

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.

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

Nothing Should Lessen Our Satisfaction With Ourselves As Much As When We Notice That We Disapprove Of Something At One Time That We Approve Of At Another Time.

There Is Such A Thing As A General Revolution Which Changes The Taste Of Men As It Changes The Fortunes Of The World.

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.

Humility Is The Altar Upon Which God Wishes That We Should Offer Him His Sacrifices.

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

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

Cunning And Treachery Are The Offspring Of Incapacity.

The Hunger For Applause Is The Source For All Conscious Literature And Heroism

To Be A Great Man It Is Necessary To Turn To Account All Opportunities.

Sometimes A Fool Has Talent, But Never Judgment.

People Are More Slanderous From Vanity Than From Malice.

He That Fancies Such A Sufficiency In Himself That He Can Live Without All The World Is Greatly Mistaken; But He That Imagines Himself So Necessary That Other People Cannot Live Without Him Is A Great Deal More Mistaken.

We Feel Good And Ill Only In Proportion To Our Self-love.

We Would Rather Speak Ill Of Ourselves Than Not Talk About Ourselves At All.

The Extreme Pleasure We Take In Speaking Of Ourselves Should Make Us Apprehensive That It Gives Hardly Any To Those Who Listen To Us.

There Is No Better Proof Of A Man's Being Truly Good Than His Desiring To Be Constantly Under The Observation Of Good Men.

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

Jealousy Is Nothing More Than A Fear Of Abandonment

A Man Convinced Of His Own Merit Will Accept Misfortune As An Honor, For Thus Can He Persuade Others, As Well As Himself, That He Is A Worthy Target For The Arrows Of Fate.

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

We Pardon As Long As We Love.

Weakness Is The Only Fault That Is Incorrigible.

We Can Be More Clever Than One, But Not More Clever Than All.

Ridicule Dishonours More Than Dishonour.

Fortune Makes Our Virtues And Vices Visible, Just As Light Does The Objects Of Sight.

Perseverance Is Neither Praiseworthy Nor Blameworthy; For It Seems To Be Only The Enduring Of Certain Inclinations And Opinions Which Men Neither Give Themselves Nor Take Away From Themselves.

Every One Speaks Well Of His Own Heart, But No One Dares Speak Well Of His Own Mind.

Only The Great Can Afford To Have Great Defects.

Absence Abates A Moderate Passion And Intensifies A Great One - As The Wind Blows Out A Candle But Fans Fire Into Flame.

We Frequently Do Good In Order To Enable Us To Do Evil Later With Impunity Exemption Of Punishment.

There Are Several Remedies Which Will Cure Love, But There Are No Infallible Ones.

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

We Never Desire Strongly, What We Desire Rationally.

Hope And Fear Are Inseparable.

Gratitude Is A Useless Word. You Will Find It In A Dictionary But Not In Life.

It Is Sometimes Necessary To Play The Fool To Avoid Being Deceived By Cunning Men.

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

The Desire To Seem Clever Often Keeps Us From Being So.

Mediocre Minds Usually Dismiss Anything Which Reaches Beyond Their Own Understanding.

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

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

It Often Happens That Things Come Into The Mind In A More Finished Form Than Could Have Been Achieved After Much Study.

It Is Easier To Appear Worthy Of A Position One Does Not Hold, Than Of The Office Which One Fills.

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.

Women Know Not The Whole Of Their Coquetry.

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

He Is Safe Who Admits No One To His Confidence.

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

Jealousy Is Not Love, But Self-love.

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

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

We Are Very Far From Always Knowing Our Own Wishes.

When Fortune Surprises Us By Giving Us Some Great Office Without Having Gradually Led Us To Expect It, Or Without Having Raised Our Hopes, It Is Well Nigh Impossible To Occupy It Well, And To Appear Worthy To Fill It.

Of All Our Faults, The One We Avow Most Easily Is Idleness; We Persuade Ourselves That It Is Allied To All The Peaceable Virtues,and As For The Others, That It Does Not Destroy Them Utterly, But Only Suspends The Exercise Of Their Functions.

Only The Contemptible Fear Contempt.

Perfect Valour Consists In Doing Without Witnesses That Which We Would Be Capable Of Doing Before Everyone.

The Violence We Do To Ourselves In Order To Remain Faithful To The One We Love Is Hardly Better Than An Act Of Infidelity.

Everyone Complains Of His Memory, And Nobody Complains Of His Judgment.

There Are A Great Many Men Valued In Society Who Have Nothing To Recommend Them But Serviceable Vices.

The Only Real Voyage Of Discovery Consists Not In Seeking New Landscapes But In Having New Eyes. The Glory Of Great Men Should Always Be Measured By The Means They Have Used To Acpuire It.

There Is Great Skill In Knowing How To Conceal One's Skill.

There Are A Great Many Simpletons Who Know Themselves To Be So, And Who Make A Very Cunning Use Of Their Own Simplicity.

The Love Of New Acquaintance Comes Not So Much From Being Weary Of What We Had Before, Or From Any Satisfaction There Is In Change, As From The Distaste We Feel In Being Too Little Admired By Those That Know Us Too Well, And The Hope Of Being More Admired By Those That Know Us Less.

To Achieve Greatness One Should Live As If They Will Never Die.

The Greatest Miracle Of Love Is The Cure Of Coquetry.

The Only Thing Constant In Life Is Change

Men Have Written In The Most Convincing Manner To Prove That Death Is No Evil, And This Opinion Has Been Confirmed On A Thousand Celebrated Occasions By The Weakest Of Men As Well As By Heroes. Even So I Doubt Whether Any Sensible Person Has Ever Believed It, And The Trouble Men Take To Convince Others As Well As Themselves That They Do Shows Clearly That It Is No Easy Undertaking.

A Wise Man Thinks It More Advantageous Not To Join The Battle Than To Win.

We Often Bore Others When We Think We Cannot Possibly Bore Them.

There Are Many Predicaments In Life That One Must Be A Bit Crazy To Escape From.

We Often Boast That We Are Never Bored; But Yet We Are So Conceited That We Do Not Perceive How Often We Bore Others.

If There Be A Love Pure And Free From The Admixture Of Our Other Passions, It Is That Which Lies Hidden In The Bottom Of Our Heart, And Which We Know Not Ourselves.

Most People Know No Other Way Of Judging Men's Worth But By The Vogue They Are In, Or The Fortunes They Have Met With.

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

Pride, Which Inspires Us With So Much Envy, Is Sometimes Of Use Toward The Moderating Of It Too.

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