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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.

-Francois De La Rochefoucauld

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Nothing Is More Contagious

Francois De La Rochefoucauld

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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.

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Hatred Is Stronger Than Friendship.

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.

To Eat Is A Necessity, But To Eat Intelligently Is An Art.

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

Some Reproaches Praise; Some Praises Reproach.

Nothing Is Rarer Than True Good Nature; They Who Are Reputed To Have It Are Generally Only Pliant Or Weak.

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

We Often Are Consoled By Our Want Of Reason For Misfortunes That Reason Could Not Have Comforted.

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

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

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

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

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

A Man May Be Sharper Than Another, But Not Than All Others.

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

Neither The Sun Nor Death Can Be Looked At Steadily.

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

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

Magnanimity Is Sufficiently Defined By Its Name, Nevertheless One Can Say It Is The Good Sense Of Pride, The Most Noble Way Of Receiving Praise.

Reconciliation With Our Enemies Is Simply A Desire To Better Our Condition, A Weariness Of War, Or The Fear Of Some Unlucky Thing From Occurring.

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

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

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

No Man Can Love A Second Time The Person Whom He Has Once Truly Ceased To Love.

It May Be Said That The Vices Await Us In The Journey Of Life Like Hosts With Whom We Must Successively Lodge; And I Doubt Whether Experience Would Make Us Avoid Them If We Were To Travel The Same Road A Second Time.

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

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.

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.

There Is Only One Kind Of Love, But There Are A Thousand Imitations.

Love Is To The Soul Of Him Who Loves, What The Soul Is To The Body Which It Animates.

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

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.

In Growing Old, We Become More Foolish - And More Wise.

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

Fortune Cures Us Of Many Faults That Reason Could Not.

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

It Is Sometimes A Point Of As Much Cleverness To Know To Make Good Use Of Advice From Others As To Be Able Give Good Advice To Oneself.

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

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

To Establish Ourselves In The World, We Have To Do All We Can To Appear Established. To Succeed In The World, We Do Everything We Can To Appear Successful.

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

A Work Can Become Modern Only If It Is First Postmodern. Postmodernism Thus Understood Is Not Modernism At Its End But In The Nascent State, And This State Is Constant.

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.]

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.]

Our Distrust Of Another Justifies His Deceit.

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

The Sure Way To Be Cheated Is To Think One's Self More Cunning Than Others.

In Love Deceit Nearly Always Goes Further Than Mistrust.

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.

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.

Weakness Is The Only Fault That Is Incorrigible.

Jealousy Is In Some Measure Just And Reasonable, Since It Merely Aims At Keeping Something That Belongs To Us Or We Think Belongsto Us, Whereas Envy Is A Frenzy That Cannot Bear Anything That Belongs To Others.

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.

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

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

Men And Things Have Each Their Proper Perspective; To Judge Rightly Of Some It Is Necessary To See Them Near, Of Others We Can Never Judge Rightly But At A Distance.

As One Grows Older, One Becomes Wiser And More Foolish.

In Love, The Quickest Is Always The Best Cure.

Politeness Of Mind Consists In Thinking Chaste And Refined Thoughts.

Second-rate Minds Usually Condemn Everything Beyond Their Grasp.

Positive Thinking

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

It Is A Great Act Of Cleverness To Be Able To Conceal One's Being Clever.

Neither Love Nor Fire Can Subsist Without Perpetual Motion; Both Cease To Live So Soon As They Cease To Hope, Or To Fear.

Perpetual Motion

Virtue Would Not Make Such Advances If There Were Not A Little Vanity To Keep It Company.

A Man Is Ridiculous Less Through The Characteristics He Has Than Through Those He Affects To Have.

Characteristics

Some Follies Are Caught, Like Contagious Diseases.

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.

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

Falling In Love

Weakness Is More Opposed To Virtue Than Is Vice.

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

We Often Shed Tears That Deceive Ourselves After Deceiving Others.

Deceiving Others

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

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

There Are Some People Who Would Never Have Fallen In Love If They Had Not Heard There Was Such A Thing.

To Know Oneself Is Not Necessarily To Improve Oneself

Knowing Oneself

The Heart Is Forever Making The Head Its Fool.

Old People Are Fond Of Giving Good Advice; It Consoles Them For No Longer Being Capable Of Setting A Bad Example.

A Gentleman May Love Like A Lunatic, But Not Like A Beast.

There Is Many A Virtuous Woman Weary Of Her Trade.

We Are Sometimes As Different From Ourselves As We Are From Others.

Self Improvement

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

We Are Never So Generous As When Giving Advice.

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

Old Men Delight In Giving Good Advice As A Consolation For The Fact That They Can No Longer Set Bad Examples.

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

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

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

We Torment Ourselves Rather To Make It Appear That We Are Happy Than To Become So.

We Cannot Possibly Imagine The Variety Of Contradictions In Every Heart.

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.

We Never Desire Strongly, What We Desire Rationally.

Women In Love Sooner Forgive Great Indiscretions Than Small Infidelities.

Taste May Change, But Inclination Never.

Nothing Is More Ridiculous In Old People That Were Once Good-looking, Than To Forget That They Are Not So Still.

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.

Nothing Is So Contagious As Example; Never Was There Any Considerable Good Or Ill Done That Does Not Produce Its Like. We Imitate Good Actions Through Emulation, And Had Ones Through A Malignity In Our Nature, Which Shame Conceals, And Example Sets At Liberty.

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

Sometimes A Fool Has Talent, But Never Judgment.

Some People Are So Extremely Whiffling And Inconsiderable That They Are As Far From Any Real Faults As From Substantial Virtues.

We Do Not Wish Ardently For What We Desire Only Through Reason.

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

To Know How To Hide One's Ability Is Great Skill.

As Love Increases, Prudence Diminishes.

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.

When Great Men Permit Themselves To Be Cast Down By The Continuance Of Misfortune, They Show Us That They Were Only Sustained By Ambition, And Not By Their Mind; So That Plus A Great Vanity, Heroes Are Made Like Other Men.

We Easily Forgive Our Friends Those Faults That Do No Affect Us Ourselves.

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

Some Weak People Are So Sensible Of Their Weakness As To Be Able To Make A Good Use Of It.

We Are So Accustomed To Disguise Ourselves To Others That In The End We Become Disguised To Ourselves.

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

It Is A Common Fault Never To Be Satisfied With Our Fortune, Nor Dissatisfied With Our Understanding.

Hope And Fear Are Inseparable.

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

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

We Should Often Blush At Our Noblest Deeds If The World Were To See All Their Underlying Motives.

Self-love Is The Greatest Of All Flatterers.

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

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

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.

If We Have Not Peace Within Ourselves, It Is In Vain To Seek It From Outward Sources.

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

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

Avarice Misapprehends Itself Almost Always. There Is No Passion Which More Often Will Miss Its Aim, Nor Upon Which The Present Has So Much Influence To The Prejudice Of The Future.

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

A Man Often Believes Himself Leader When He Is Led; As His Mind Endeavors To Reach One Goal, His Heart Insensibly Drags Him Towards Another.

Narrowness Of Mind Is Often The Cause Of Obstinacy; We Do Not Easily Believe Beyond What We See.

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

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.

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.

We Have More Indolence In The Mind Than In The Body.

There Are No Accidents So Unlucky But The Prudent May Draw Some Advantage From Them.

The Moderation Of Men In The Most Exalted Fortunes Is A Desire To Be Thought Above Those Things That Have Raised Them So High.

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

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

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.

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

Minds Of Moderate Caliber Ordinarily Condemn Everthing Which Is Beyond Their Range.

Esteem Never Makes Ingrates.

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

Fortune Turns All Things To The Advantage Of Those On Whom She Smiles.

The Constancy Of The Wise Is Only The Art Of Keeping Disquietude To One's Self.

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

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.

What We Cut Off From Our Other Faults Is Very Often But So Much Added To Our Pride.

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.

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

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

Hypocrisy Is The Homage Vice Pays To Virtue.

Even Women Are Perfect At The Outset.

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

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.

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.

Beautiful Coquettes Are Quacks Of Love.

We Had Better Appear What We Are, Than Affect To Appear What We Are Not.

We Are Deceived If We Think That Mind And Judgment Are Two Different Matters: Judgment Is But The Extent Of The Light Of The Mind. This Light Penetrates To The Bottom Of Matters; It Remarks All That Can Be Remarked, And Perceives What Appears Imperceptible. Therefore We Must Agree That It Is The Extent Of The Light In The Mind That Produces All The Effects Which We Attribute To Judgment.

It Is From A Weakness And Smallness Of Mind That Men Are Opinionated; And We Are Very Loath To Believe What We Are Not Able To Comprehend.

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

The Greatest Miracle Of Love Is The Cure Of Coquetry.

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

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

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.

Men Never Desire Anything Very Eagerly Which They Desire Only By The Dictates Of Reason.

The Mark Of Extraordinary Merit Is To See Those Most Envious Of It Constrained To Praise.

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

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 Are More Interested In Making Others Believe We Are Happy Than In Trying To Be Happy Ourselves.

Make Others Happy

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

The Name And Pretense Of Virtue Is As Serviceable To Self-interest As Are Real Vices.

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

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.

None Deserve Praise For Being Good Who Have Not The Spirit To Be Bad: Goodness, For The Most Part, Is Nothing But Indolence Or Weakness Of Will.

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

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.

Youth Is A Perpetual Intoxication; It Is A Fever Of The Mind.

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

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

We Own Up To Minor Failings, But Only So As To Convince Others That We Have No Major Ones.

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

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

In Love We Often Doubt What We Most Believe.

Time's Chariot-wheels Make Their Carriage-road In The Fairest Face.

Avarice Often Produces Opposite Results: There Are An Infinite Number Of Persons Who Sacrifice Their Property To Doubtful And Distant Expectations; Others Mistake Great Future Advantages For Small Present Interests.

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

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

Truth Does Less Good In The World Than Its Appearances Do Harm.

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

The Surest Proof Of Being Endowed With Noble Qualities Is To Be Free From Envy.

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.

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

Those Who Are Overreached By Our Cunning Are Far From Appearing To Us As Ridiculous As We Appear To Ourselves When The Cunning Of Others Has Overreached Us.

As It Is The Characteristic Of Great Wits To Say Much In Few Words, So Small Wits Seem To Have The Gift Of Speaking Much And Saying Nothing.

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.

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.

Satire Is At Once The Most Agreeable And Most Dangerous Of Mental Qualities. It Always Pleases When It Is Refined, But We Always Fear Those Who Use It Too Much; Yet Satire Should Be Allowed When Unmixed With Spite, And When The Person Satirized Can Join In The Satire.

Our Enemies' Opinion Of Us Comes Closer To The Truth Than Our Own.

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

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

Kings Do With Men As With Pieces Of Money; They Give Them What Value They Please, And We Are Obliged To Receive Them At Their Current And Not At Their Real Value.

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

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