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Men Are Not Only Prone To Forget Benefits; They Even Hate Those Who Have Obliged Them, And Cease To Hate Those Who Have Injured Them. The Necessity Of Revenging An Injury, Or Of Recompensing A Benefit Seems A Slavery To Which They Are Unwilling To Submit.

-Francois De La Rochefoucauld

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Men Are Not Only

Francois De La Rochefoucauld

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Men Are Not Only Prone To Forget Benefits; They Even Hate Those Who Have Obliged Them, And Cease To Hate Those Who Have Injured Them. The Necessity Of Revenging An Injury, Or Of Recompensing A Benefit Seems A Slavery To Which They Are Unwilling To Submit.

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More From Francois De La Rochefoucauld

In Love We Often Doubt What We Most Believe.

Love, Like Fire, Cannot Subsist Without Constant Impulse; It Ceases To Live From The Moment It Ceases To Hope Or To Fear.

Perfect Courage And Utter Cowardice Are Two Extremes Which Rarely Occur.

Men Would Not Live In Society Long If They Were Not Each Others Dupes.

Our Enemies Come Nearer The Truth In The Opinions They Form Of Us Than We Do In Our Opinion Of Ourselves.

One Forgives To The Degree That One Loves.

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

We Should Only Affect Compassion, And Carefully Avoid Having Any.

We Make Promises To The Extent That We Hope-and Keep Them To The Extent That We Fear.

Self-interest Makes Some People Blind, And Others Sharp-sighted.

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

One Thing Which Makes Us Find So Few People Who Appear Reasonable And Agreeable In Conversation Is, That There Is Scarcely Any One Who Does Not Think More Of What He Is About To Say Than Of Answering Precisely What Is Said To Him.

Women Do Not Know All Their Powers Of Flirtation.

Conceit Causes More Conversation Than Wit.

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

Though Nature Be Ever So Generous, Yet Can She Not Make A Hero Alone. Fortune Must Contribute Her Part Too; And Till Both Concur, The Work Cannot Be Perfected.

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

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.

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 Thing That Makes Our Friendships So Short And Changeable Is That The Qualities And Dispositions Of The Soul Are Very Hard To Know, And Those Of The Understanding And Wit Very Easy.

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.

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

Hypocrisy Is An Homage That Vice Renders To Virtue.

In Love, The Quickest Is Always The Best Cure.

No Matter How Much Care We Put Into Hiding Our Passions Under The Appearances Of Devotion And Honor, They Can Always Be Seen To Peer Out Through These Covers.

Tis More Dishonourable To Distrust A Friend Than To Be Deceived By Him.

Το Know How To Profit By Good Advice, Requires Nearly As Much Ability As To Know How To Act For One'self.

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

Silence Is The Best Tactic For He Who Distrusts Himself.

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.

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.

The One Thing People Are The Most Liberal With, Is Their Advice.

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.

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

We Often Shed Tears That Deceive Ourselves After Deceiving Others.

Deceiving Others

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

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

Most Women Lament Not The Death Of Their Lovers So Much Out Of Real Affection For Them, As Because They Would Appear Worthy Of Love.

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

Tricks And Treachery Are Merely Proofs Of Lack Of Skill.

Whatever Pretext We May Give For Our Affections, Often It Is Only Interest And Vanity Which Cause Them.

It's Easier To Know People In General Than One Person In Particular

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

Innocence Does Not Find Near So Much Protection As Guilt.

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

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

Fancy Sets The Value On The Gifts Of Fortune.

A Readiness To Believe Ill Of Others, Before We Have Duly Examined It, Is The Effect Of Laziness And Pride. We Are Eager To Find Aculprit, And Loath To Give Ourselves The Trouble Of Examining The Crime.

Few Things Are Needful To Make The Wise Man Happy, But Nothing Satisfies The Fool; - And This Is The Reason Why So Many Of Mankind Are Miserable.

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

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

The Person Giving The Advice Returns The Confidence Placed In Him With A Disinterested Eagerness... And He Is Usually Guided Only By His Own Interest Or Reputation.

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

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.

Whatever Distrust We May Have Of The Sincerity Of Those Who Converse With Us, We Always Believe They Will Tell Us More Truth Than They Do To Others.

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

The Height Of Ability In The Least Able Consists In Knowing How To Submit To The Good Leadership Of Others.

For Most Men The Love Of Justice Is Only The Fear Of Suffering Injustice.

We Are Never So Happy, Nor So Unhappy, As We Suppose Ourselves To Be.

Some Men Are Like Ballads, That Are In Everyone's Mouth A Little While.

Listening Well And Answering Well Is One Of The Greatest Perfections That Can Be Obtained In Conversation.

There Are Few Good Women Who Do Not Tire Of Their Role.

Hope Is The Last Thing That Dies In Man; And Though It Be Exceedingly Deceitful, Yet It Is Of This Good Use To Us, That While We Are Traveling Through Life It Conducts Us In An Easier And More Pleasant Way To Our Journey's End.

Wit Sometimes Enables Us To Act Rudely With Impunity.

The Applause We Give Those Who Are New To Society Often Proceeds From A Secret Envying Of Those Already Established.

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.

We Are Never Either So Fortunate Or So Misfortunate As We Imagine.

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Passions Do Very Often Give Birth To Others Of A Nature Most Contrary To Their Own. Thus Avarice Sometimes Brings Forth Prodigality, And Prodigality Avarice; A Man's Resolution Is Very Often The Effect Of Levity, And His Boldness That Of Cowardice And Fear.

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

Humility Is Often Merely Feigned Submissiveness Assumed In Order To Subject Others, An Artifice Of Pride Which Stoops To Conquer, And Although Pride Has A Thousand Ways Of Transforming Itself It Is Never So Well Disguised And Able To Take People In As When Masquerading As Humility.

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

Moderation Cannot Have The Credit Of Combatiug And Subduing Ambition, They Are Never Found Together. Moderation Is The Languor And Indolence Of The Soul, As Ambition Is Its Activity And Ardor.

Flattery Is A Counterfeit Money Which, But For Vanity, Would Have No Circulation.

We Always Get Bored With Those Whom We Bore.

We Seldom Find People Ungrateful So Long As It Is Thought We Can Serve Them.

Ungrateful People

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.

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

Our Actions Seem To Have Their Lucky And Unlucky Stars, To Which A Great Part Of That Blame And That Commendation Is Due Which Is Given To The Actions Themselves.

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

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

Some Accidents There Are In Life That A Little Folly Is Necessary To Help Us Out Of.

Sobriety Is Love Of Health, Or Inability To Eat Much.

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

As The Great Ones Of This World Are Unable To Bestow Health Of Body Or Peace Of Mind, We Always Pay Too High A Price For Any Good They Can Do.

Our Actions Are Like Blank Rhymes, To Which Everyone Applies What Sense He Pleases.

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

Considering How Little The Beginning Or The Ceasing To Love Is In Our Own Power, It Is Foolish And Unreasonable For The Lover Or His Mistress To Complain Of One Another's Inconstancy.

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

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.

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.]

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

We Are Never So Generous As When Giving Advice.

Plenty Of People Want To Be Pious, But No One Yearns To Be Humble.

Few People Know Death, We Only Endure It, Usually From Determination, And Even From Stupidity And Custom; And Most Men Only Die Because They Know Not How To Prevent Dying.

Only The Great Can Afford To Have Great Defects.

We Often Pride Ourselves On Even The Most Criminal Passions, But Envy Is A Timid And Shamefaced Passion We Never Dare To Acknowledge.

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

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.

Death And The Sun Are Not To Be Looked At Steadily.

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

Old Age Is A Tyrant, Who Forbids, Under Pain Of Death, The Pleasures Of Youth.

It Is Easier To Rule Others Than To Keep From Being Ruled Oneself.

Passion Often Renders The Most Clever Man A Fool, And Sometimes Renders The Most Foolish Man Clever.

The Defects And Faults Of The Mind Are Like Wounds In The Body; After All Imaginable Care Has Been Taken To Heal Them Up, Still There Will Be A Scar Left Behind, And They Are In Continual Danger Of Breaking The Skin And Bursting Out Again.

There Are Reproaches Which Praise, And Praises Which Defame.

Love Is The Smallest Part Of Gallantry.

Jealousy Contains More Of Self-love Than Of Love.

There Are Follies As Catching As Contagious Disorders.

We Should Gain More By Letting The World See What We Are Than By Trying To Seem What We Are Not.

If A Man Doesn't Find Ease In Himself, 'tis In Vain To Seek It Elsewhere.

Confidence Always Pleases Those Who Receive It. It Is A Tribute We Pay To Their Merit, A Deposit We Commit To Their Trust, A Pledge That Gives Them A Claim Upon Us, A Kind Of Dependence To Which We Voluntarily Submit.

There Are No Circumstances, However Unfortunate, That Clever People Do Not Extract Some Advantage From.

Silence Is The Best Security To The Man Who Distrusts Himself.

Jealousy Is Bred In Doubts. When Those Doubts Change Into Certainties, Then The Passion Either Ceases Or Turns Absolute Madness.

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

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.]

Heat Of Blood Makes Young People Change Their Inclinations Often, And Habit Makes Old Ones Keep To Theirs A Great While.

Everyone Blames His Memory, No One Blames His Judgment.

The Reason Why Lovers Are Never Bored Together Is That They Are Always Talking Of Themselves.

Weakness Is The Only Fault That Is Incorrigible.

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

The Reason That Lovers Never Weary Each Other Is Because They Are Always Talking About Themselves.

The Most Violent Passions Sometimes Leave Us At Rest, But Vanity Agitates Us Constantly.

The Ambitious Deceive Themselves In Proposing An End To Their Ambition; That End, When Attained, Becomes A Means.

Gratitude Is Like Credit; It Is The Backbone Of Our Relations; Frequently We Pay Our Debts Not Because Equity Demands That We Should, But To Facilitate Future Loans.

Only Great Men Have Great Faults.

Humility Is The Worst Form Of Conceit.

The Greatest Miracle Of Love Is The Cure Of Coquetry.

He Is Safe Who Admits No One To His Confidence.

Organize One's Values In The Order Of Their Worth

The Prospect Of Being Pleased Tomorrow Will Never Console Me For The Boredom Of Today.

Jealousy Is In A Manner Just And Reasonable, As It Tends To Preserve A Good Which Belongs, Or Which We Believe Belongs To Us, On The Other Hand Envy Is A Fury Which Cannot Endure The Happiness Of Others.

We May Give Advice, But Not The Sense To Use It.

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

Friendship Is A Traffic Wherein Self-love Always Proposes To Be The Gainer.

The Praise We Give To New Comers Into The World Arises From The Envy We Bear To Those Who Are Established.

A Fool Has Not Stuff Enough To Make A Good Man.

We Acknowledge Our Faults In Order To Repair By Our Sincerity The Damage They Have Done Us In The Eyes Of Others.

Those Who Occupy Their Minds With Small Matters, Generally Become Incapable Of Greatness.

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

What We Take For Virtue Is Often But An Assemblage Of Various Ambitions And Activities That Chance, Or Our Own Astuteness, Have Arranged In A Certain Manner; And It Is Not Always Out Of Courage Or Purity That Men Are Brave, And Women Chaste.

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.

Hypocrisy Is The Homage Vice Pays To Virtue.

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

There Are Some Disguised Falsehoods So Like Truths, That 'twould Be To Judge Ill Not To Be Deceived By Them.

It Is The Habit Of Mediocre Minds To Condemn All That Is Beyond Their Grasp.

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

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

Chance Corrects Us Of Many Faults That Reason Would Not Know How To Correct.

It Is Given To Few Persons To Keep This Secret Well. Those Who Lay Down Rules Too Often Break Them, And The Safest We Are Able To Give Is To Listen Much, To Speak Little, And To Say Nothing That That Will Ever Give Ground Or Regret.

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

Keeping Secrets

Nothing Is Impossible; There Are Ways That Lead To Everything, And If We Had Sufficient Will We Should Always Have Sufficient Means. It Is Often Merely For An Excuse That We Say Things Are Impossible.

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

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

One Honor Won Is A Surety For More.

Even The Most Disinterested Love Is, After All, But A Kind Of Bargain, In Which Self-love Always Proposes To Be The Gainer One Wayor Another.

Pity Is A Sense Of Our Own Misfortunes In Those Of Another Man; It Is A Sort Of Foresight Of The Disasters Which May Befall Ourselves. We Assist Others,, In Order That They May Assist Us On Like Occasions; So That The Services We Offer To The Unfortunate Are In Reality So Many Anticipated Kindnesses To Ourselves.

He Is A Truly Virtuous Man Who Wishes Always To Be Open To The Observation Of Honest Men.

Fortune Mends More Faults In Us Than Ever Reason Would Be Able To Do.

A Well-trained Mind Has Less Difficulty In Submitting To Than In Guiding An Ill-trained Mind.

Perhaps Being Old Is Having Lighted Rooms Inside Your Head, And People In Them, Acting. People You Know, Yet Can't Quite Name.

The Man That Thinks He Loves His Mistress For Her Own Sake Is Mightily Mistaken.

When Love Becomes Labored We Welcome An Act Of Infidelity Towards Ourselves To Free Us From Fidelity.

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

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

Weakness Is More Opposed To Virtue Than Is Vice.

Idleness Is More An Infirmity Of The Mind Than Of The Body.

We Should Scarcely Desire Things Ardently If We Were Perfectly Acquainted With What We Desire.

In Infants, Levity Is A Prettiness; In Men A Shameful Defect; But In Old Age, A Monstrous Folly.

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

Sometimes A Fool Has Talent, But Never Judgment.

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

People Are Often Vain Of Their Passions, Even Of The Worst, But Envy Is A Passion So Timid And Shame-faced That No One Ever Dare Avow Her.

Many Men Are Contemptuous Of Riches; Few Can Give Them Away.

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

Some Allow Themselves To Be Overcome By Panic, And Others Charge Because They Dare Not Remain At Their Posts. Some May Be Found Whose Courage Is Strengthened By Small Perils That Prepare Them To Face Greater Dangers. Some Are Daring When Facing Swords But Dread Facing Bullets; Others Dread Bullets Little But Fear Facing Swords A Lot.

We Get So Much In The Habit Of Wearing Disguises Before Others That We Finally Appear Disguised Before Ourselves.

It Is Almost Always A Fault Of One Who Loves Not To Realize When He Ceases To Be Loved.

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

It Is As Proper To Have Pride In Oneself As It Ridiculous To Show It To Others.

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.

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

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.

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.

Madmen And Fools See Everything Through The Medium Of Humor.

Humility Is Often A False Front We Employ To Gain Power Over Others.

Power Over Others

If We Had No Faults, We Would Not Derive So Much Pleasure From Noting Those Of Other People.

It Is Oftener By The Estimation Of Our Own Feelings That We Exaggerate The Good Qualities Of Others Than By Their Merit, And When We Praise Them We Wish To Attract Their Praise.

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

It Is With Certain Good Qualities As With The Senses; Those Who Have Them Not Can Neither Appreciate Nor Comprehend Them In Others.

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

Silence Is The Safest Course For Any Man To Adopt Who Distrust Himself.

They That Apply Themselves To Trifling Matters Commonly Become Incapable Of Great Ones.

The Greatest Fault Of A Penetrating Wit Is To Go Beyond The Mark.

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