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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.

-Francois De La Rochefoucauld

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Of All Our Faults,

Francois De La Rochefoucauld

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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.

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We Should Not Be Upset That Others Hide The Truth From Us, When We Hide It So Often From Ourselves.

For The Credit Of Virtue We Must Admit That The Greatest Misfortunes Of Men Are Those Into Which They Fall Through Their Crimes.

We Often Make Use Of Envenomed Praise, That Reveals On The Rebound, As It Were, Defects In Those Praised Which We Dare Not Exposeany Other Way.

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

There Is A Kind Of Love, The Excess Of Which Forbids Jealousy.

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

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

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

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.

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 Moderation Of Fortunate People Comes From The Calm Which Good Fortune Gives To Their Tempers.

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

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

Innocence Is Lucky If It Finds The Same Protection As Guilt

Innocence Does Not Find Near So Much Protection As Guilt.

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.

The Desire Of Talking Of Ourselves, And Showing Those Faults We Do Not Mind Having Seen, Makes Up A Good Part Of Our Sincerity.

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

The Only Security Is Courage.

Imagination Could Never Invent The Number Of Different Contradictions That Exist Innately In Each Person's Heart.

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

Even Women Are Perfect At The Outset.

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

The Passions Often Engender Their Contraries.

There Is A Kind Of Elevation Which Does Not Depend On Fortune; It Is A Certain Air Which Distinguishes Us, And Seems To Destine Us For Great Things; It Is A Price Which We Imperceptibly Set Upon Ourselves.

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

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

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

That Good Disposition Which Boasts Of Being Most Tender Is Often Stifled By The Least Urging Of Self-interest.

Sometimes In Life Situations Develop That Only The Half-crazy Can Get Out Of.

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.

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.

In Great Affairs We Ought To Apply Ourselves Less To Creating Chances Than To Profiting From Those That Offer.

Our Probity Is Not Less At The Mercy Of Fortune Than Our Property.

There Are But Very Few Men Clever Enough To Know All The Mischief They Do.

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.

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

If One Judges Love According To The Greatest Part Of The Effects It Produces, It Would Appear To Resemble Rather Hatred Than Kindness.

Fortune And Humor Govern The World.

Numberless Arts Appear Foolish Whose Secret Motives Are Most Wise And Weighty.

Vices Are Ingredients Of Virtues Just As Poisons Are Ingredients Of Remedies. Prudence Mixes And Tempers Them And Uses Them Effectively Against Life's Ills.

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

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

There Are People Who, Like New Songs, Are In Vogue Only For A Time.

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

Jealousy Contains More Of Self-love Than Of Love.

The Mind Is Always The Patsy Of The Heart.

What We Call Generosity Is For The Most Part Only The Vanity Of Giving; And We Exercise It Because We Are More Fond Of That Vanity Than Of The Thing We Give.

The Height Of Cleverness Is To Be Able To Conceal It.

The Sure Mark Of One Born With Noble Qualities Is Being Born Without Envy.

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

Those Who Have The Most Cunning Affect All Their Lives To Condemn Cunning; That They May Make Use Of It On Some Great Occasion, And To Some Great End.

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

Virtues Lose Themselves In Self-interest, As Rivers In The Sea.

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

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

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

Nothing Is So Capable Of Diminishing Self-love As The Observation That We Disapprove At One Time What We Approve At Another.

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

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.

Virtue Would Go Far If Vanity Did Not Keep It Company.

There Are No Events So Disastrous That Adroit Men Do Not Draw Some Advantage From Them, Nor Any So Fortunate That The Imprudent Cannot Turn To Their Own Prejudice.

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

We Have Not Enough Strength To Follow All Our Reason.

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

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

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

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

Many Young Persons Believe Themselves Natural When They Are Only Impolite And Coarse.

Moderation In People Who Are Contented Comes From That Calm That Good Fortune Lends To Their Spirit.

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.

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

There Is A Form Of Eminence Which Does Not Depend On Fate; It Is An Air Which Sets Us Apart And Seems To Prtend Great Things; It Is The Value Which We Unconsciously Attach To Ourselves; It Is The Quality Which Wins Us Deference Of Others; More Than Birth, Position, Or Ability, It Gives Us Ascendance.

It Is Difficult To Define Love; All We Can Say Is, That In The Soul It Is A Desire To Rule, In The Mind It Is A Sympathy, And In The Body It Is A Hidden And Delicate Wish To Possess What We Love-plus Many Mysteries.

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.

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

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

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.

Gratitude, In Most Men, Is Only A Strong And Secret Hope Of Greater Favors.

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

Conceit Causes More Conversation Than Wit.

We Should Not Judge A Man's Merits By His Great Qualities, But By The Use He Makes Of Them.

I Always Say To Myself, What Is The Most Important Thing We Can Think About At This Extraordinary Moment.

Extraordinary Moments

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

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.

One Forgives To The Degree That One Loves.

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

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.

Our Own Distrust Gives A Fair Pretence For The Knavery Of Other People.

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

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

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

Were We Not Proud Ourselves, We Should Not Complain Of The Pride Of Others.

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

To Be A Great Man It Is Necessary To Know How To Profit By The Whole Of Our Good Fortune.

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.

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

Only Strong Natures Can Really Be Sweet Ones; Those That Seem Sweet Are In General Only Weak, And May Easily Turn Sour.

Our Wisdom Is No Less At Fortune's Mercy Than Our Wealth.

However Wicked Men May Be, They Do Not Dare Openly To Appear The Enemies Of Virtue, And When They Desire To Persecute Her They Either Pretend To Believe Her False Or Attribute Crimes To Her.

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.

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

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

It Is Great Folly To Wish To Be Wise All Alone.

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

Our Temper Sets A Price Upon Every Gift That We Receive From Fortune.

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

The Intention Of Never Deceiving Often Exposes Us To Deception.

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

A Man, In Order To Establish Himself In The World, Does Everything He Can To Appear Established There.

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

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

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

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

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

Gratitude Is Merely The Secret Hope Of Further Favors.

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.

Not All Who Discharge Their Debts Of Gratitude Should Flatter Themselves That They Are Grateful.

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.

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

The Best Way To Rise In Society Is To Use All Possible Means Of Persuading People That One Has Already Risen In Society.

Our Merit Gains Us The Esteem Of The Virtuous-our Star That Of The Public.

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

We Acknowledge That We Should Not Talk Of Our Wives; But We Seem Not To Know That We Should Talk Still Less Of Ourselves.

There Are Certain Defects Which, Well-mounted, Glitter Like Virtue Itself.

The Most Effectual Way To Be Deceived Is To Believe Oneself More Cunning Than One's Neighbors.

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

Happiness Does Not Consist In Things Themselves But In The Relish We Have Of Them.

It Is Easier To Deceive Yourself, And To Do So Unperceived, Than To Deceive Another.

It Requires Greater Virtues To Support Good Fortune Than Bad.

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

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

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

Service Culture

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.

The Great Interests Of Man: Air And Light, The Joy Of Having A Body, The Voluptuousness Of Looking.

Preserving Health By Too Severe A Rule Is A Worrisome Malady.

Nature Creates Ability; Luck Provides It With Opportunity.

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.

There Are Two Things Which Man Cannot Look At Directly Without Flinching: The Sun And Death.

However Evil Men May Be They Dare Not Be Openly Hostile To Virtue, And So When They Want To Attack It They Pretend To Find It Spurious , Or Impute Crimes To It.

Avarice Is More Opposite To Economy Than Liberality.

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

None But The Contemptible Are Apprehensive Of Contempt.

Our Minds Are As Much Given To Laziness As Our Bodies.

Only The Contemptible Fear Contempt.

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

That Conduct Often Seems Ridiculous The Secret Reasons Of Which Are Wise And Solid.

The Caprice Of Our Temper Is Even More Whimsical Than That Of Fortune.

The Greatest Part Of Our Faults Are More Excusable Than The Methods That Are Commonly Taken To Conceal Them.

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

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.

None But Great Men Are Capable Of Having Great Flaws.

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

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

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

Politeness Is A Desire To Be Treated Politely, And To Be Esteemed Polite Oneself.

Loyalty Is In Most People Only A Ruse Used By Self-interest To Attract Confidence.

A Man's Happiness Or Unhappiness Depends As Much On His Temperament As On His Destiny.

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

Hypocrisy Is The Homage Vice Pays To Virtue.

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

Positive Thinking

Affected Simplicity Is A Subtle Imposture.

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

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

Nothing Ought In Reason To Mortify Our Self-satisfaction More That The Considering That We Condemn At One Time What We Highly Approve And Commend At Another.

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.

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

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.

Men's Happiness And Misery Depends Altogether As Much Upon Their Own Humor As It Does Upon Fortune.

Eloquence Resides As Much In The Tone Of Voice, In The Eyes, And In The Expression Of The Face, As In The Choice Of Words.

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

No Man Deserves To Be Praised For His Goodness, Who Has It Not In His Power To Be Wicked. Goodness Without That Power Is Generally Nothing More Than Sloth, Or An Impotence Of Will.

When A Man Is In Love, He Doubts, Very Often, What He Most Firmly Believes.

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

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

The Only Thing That Should Astonish Us Is That Anything Can Yet Astonish Us.

Some People Displease With Merit, And Others' Very Faults And Defects Are Pleasing.

Moderation Resembles Temperance. We Are Not So Unwilling To Eat More, As Afraid Of Doing Ourselves Harm By It.

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

Organize One's Values In The Order Of Their Worth

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

It Is Easier To Be Wise For Others Than For Ourselves.

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

There Is Merit Without Rank, But There Is No Rank Without Some Merit.

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

When Our Hatred Is Too Alive Puts Us Below What We Hate.

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

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

What Makes The Pain We Feel From Shame And Jealousy So Cutting Is That Vanity Can Give Us No Assistance In Bearing Them.

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

We Often Brag That We Are Never Bored With Ourselves, And Are So Vain As Never To Think Ourselves Bad Company.

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

A Weak Mind Is The Only Defect Out Of Our Power To Mend.

Madmen And Fools See Everything Through The Medium Of Humor.

Few Know How To Be Old.

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

Those Whom The World Has Delighted To Honor Have Oftener Been Influenced In Their Doings By Ambition And Vanity Than By Patriotism.

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