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

-Francois De La Rochefoucauld

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Some Counterfeits Reproduce So

Francois De La Rochefoucauld

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

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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.

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

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

Those Who Are Incapable Of Committing Great Crimes Do Not Readily Suspect Them In Others.

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

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

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.

Constancy In Love Is Of Two Sorts: One Is The Effect Of New Excellencies That Are Always Presenting Themselves Afresh, And Attractour Affections Continually; The Other Is Only From A Point Of Honor, And A Taking Of Pride Not To Change.

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

Friendship Is Only A Reciprocal Conciliation Of Interests, And An Exchange Of Good Offices; It Is A Species Of Commerce Out Of Which Self-love Always Expects To Gain Something.

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

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

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

We Can Never Be Certain Of Our Courage Until We Have Faced Danger.

Fortune Never Seems So Blind To Any As To Those On Whom She Bestows No Favors.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

Nothing Is So Catching As Example.

Conceit Causes More Conversation Than Wit.

We Would Frequently Be Ashamed Of Our Good Deeds If People Saw All Of The Motives That Produced Them.

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

The Moderation Of People In Prosperity Is The Effect Of A Smooth And Composed Temper, Owing To The Calm Of Their Good Fortune.

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

In The Human Heart One Generation Of Passions Follows Another; From The Ashes Of One Springs The Spark Of The Next.

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

When We Disclaim Praise, It Is Only Showing Our Desire To Be Praised A Second Time.

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.

One Should Treat One's Fate As One Does One's Health; Enjoy It When It Is Good, Be Patient With It When It Is Poor, And Never Attempt Any Drastic Cure Save As An Ultimate Resort.

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

To Awaken A Man Who Is Deceived As To His Own Merit Is To Do Him As Bad A Turn As That Done To The Athenian Madman Who Was Happy In Believing That All The Ships Touching At The Port Belonged To Him.

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

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.

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.

We Forgive Just So Long As We Love.

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

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

We Pardon To The Extent That We Love.

The Qualities We Have Do Not Make Us So Ridiculous As Those Which We Affect To Have. [fr., On N'est Jamais Si Ridicule Par Les Qualites Que L'on A Que Par Celles Que L'on Affecte D'avoir.]

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.

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

Jealousy Contains More Of Self-love Than Of Love.

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

There Are Few Things We Should Keenly Desire If We Really Knew What We Wanted.

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

Decency Is The Least Of All Laws, But Yet It Is The Law Which Is Most Strictly Observed.

Usually We Praise Only To Be Praised.

The Sicknesses Of The Soul Have Their Ups And Downs Like Those Of The Body; What We Take To Be A Cure Is Most Often Merely A Respite Or Change Of Disease.

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

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

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.

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

We Do Not Like To Praise, And Seldom Praise Anyone Without Self-interest.

We Promise According To Our Hopes And Perform According To Our Fears.

There Are More Defects In Temperament Than In The Mind.

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

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

What Keeps Us From Abandoning Ourselves Entirely To One Vice, Often, Is The Fact That We Have Several.

One May Outwit Another, But Not All The Others.

When We Exaggerate Our Friends' Tenderness Towards Us, It Is Often Less From Gratitude Than From A Desire To Exhibit Our Own Virtue.

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.

One Can No More Look Steadily At Death Than At The Sun.

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

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

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

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

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

Ordinary Men Commonly Condemn What Is Beyond Them.

We Seldom Praise Anyone In Good Earnest, Except Such As Admire Us.

Repentance Is Not So Much Remorse For What We Have Done As The Fear Of The Consequences.

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.

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.

Bodily Labor Alleviates The Pains Of The Mind And From This Arises The Happiness Of The Poor

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.

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

Women Can Less Easily Surmount Their Coquetry Than Their Passions.

Whatever Good Things People Say Of Us, They Tell Us Nothing New.

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

The Less You Trust Others, The Less You Will Be Deceived.

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

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

Sometimes A Fool Has Talent, But Never Judgment.

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

One Kind Of Flirtation Is To Boast We Never Flirt.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

Perfect Valor Is To Do, Without A Witness, All That We Could Do Before The Whole World.

There Is No Accident So Unfortunate But Wise Men Will Make Some Advantage Of It, Nor Any So Entirely Fortunate But Fools May Turn It To Their Own Prejudice.

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

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

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.

The Duration Of Our Passions Is No More Dependent On Ourselves Than The Duration Of Our Lives.

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.

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

There Is Many A Virtuous Woman Weary Of Her Trade.

Strength And Weakness Of Mind Are Misnomers; They Are Really Nothing But The Good Or Bad Health Of Our Bodily Organs.

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

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

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

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.

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

Gratitude Is Merely The Secret Hope Of Further Favors.

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

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

Hope Is The Last Thing That Dies In Man.

Only The Contemptible Fear Contempt.

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

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

If We Did Not Flatter Ourselves, The Flattery Of Others Could Never Harm Us.

Nothing Is Rarer Than Real Goodness.

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

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

The Soul's Maladies Have Their Relapses Like The Body's. What We Take For A Cure Is Often Just A Momentary Rally Or A New Form Of The Disease.

Self-love Is More Cunning Than The Most Cunning Man In The World.

We Often Shed Tears That Deceive Ourselves After Deceiving Others.

Deceiving Others

Humility Is Often Only A Feigned Submissiveness By Which Men Hope To Bring Other People To Submit To Them; It Is A More Calculated Sort Of Pride.

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

Avarice Is More Directly Opposed To Thrift Than Generosity Is.

Affected Simplicity Is A Subtle Imposture.

Our Distrust Of Another Justifies His Deceit.

Politeness Of The Mind Is To Have Delicate Thoughts

The First Lover Is Kept A Long While, When No Offer Is Made Of A Second.

Men More Easily Renounce Their Interests Than Their Tastes.

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

Renewed Friendships Require More Care Than Those That Have Never Been Broken.

The Gratitude Of Most Men Is But A Secret Desire Of Receiving Greater Benefits.

Preserving The Serious Health Condition Is Usually Painful.

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

The Desire To Be Thought Clever Often Prevents A Man From Becoming So.

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

When You Plant A Seed Of Love, It Is You That Blossoms. Ma Jaya Sati Bhagavati The 11 Karmic Spaces: Choosing Freedom From The Patterns That Bind You There Are Two Kinds Of Faithfulness In Love: One Is Based On Forever Finding New Things To Love In The Loved One; The Other Is Based On Our Pride In Being Faithful.

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

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.

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

We All Have Enough Strength To Endure The Misfortunes Of Others.

Misfortunes Of Others

The Whimsicalness Of Our Own Humor Is A Thousand Times More Fickle And Unaccountable Than What We Blame So Much In Fortune.

There Are Few Occasions When We Should Make A Bad Bargain By Giving Up The Good On Condition That No Ill Was Said Of Us.

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

All Our Qualities, Whether Good Or Bad, Are Unstable And Ambiguous, And Almost All Are At The Mery Of Chance.

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

The Pleasure Of Love Is In Loving; We Are Happier In The Passion We Feel Than In What We Inspire.

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

The Most Sure Method Of Subjecting Yourself To Be Deceived Is To Consider Yourself More Cunning Than Others.

We Love Everything On Our Own Account; We Even Follow Our Own Taste And Inclination When We Prefer Our Friends To Ourselves; And Yet It Is This Preference Alone That Constitutes True And Perfect Friendship.

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

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.

Passions Often Produce Their Contraries: Avarice Sometimes Leads To Prodigality, And Prodigality To Avarice; We Are Often Obstinate Through Weakness And Daring Through Timidity.

Youth Is A Continual Intoxication; It Is The Fever Of Reason.

Sometimes There Is Equal Or More Ability In Knowing How To Use Good Advice Than There Is In Giving It.

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

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

Philosophy Finds It An Easy Matter To Vanquish Past And Future Evils, But The Present Are Commonly Too Hard For It.

Women Do Not Know All Their Powers Of Flirtation.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

The Grace Of Novelty And The Length Of Habit, Though So Very Opposite To One Another, Yet Agree In This, That They Both Alike Keepus From Discovering The Faults Of Our Friends.

We Bear, All Of Us, The Misfortunes Of Other People With Heroic Constancy.

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

The Force We Use On Ourselves, To Prevent Ourselves From Loving, Is Often More Cruel Than The Severest Treatment At The Hands Of One Loved.

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

True Bravery Means Doing Alone That Which One Could Do If All The World Were By.

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

The Generality Of Virtuous Women Are Like Hidden Treasures, They Are Safe Only Because Nobody Has Sought After Them.

No Persons Are More Frequently Wrong, Than Those Who Will Not Admit They Are Wrong.

Great Men Should Not Have Great Faults.

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

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

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

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

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.]

Wisdom Is The Mind What Health Is To The Body.

Avarice Is More Opposite To Economy Than Liberality.

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

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

When Our Vices Desert Us, We Flatter Ourselves That We Are Deserting Our Vices.

One Of The Greatest And Also The Commonest Of Faults Is For Men To Believe That, Because They Never Hear Their Shortcomings Spoken Of, Or Read About Them In Cold Print, Others Can Have No Knowledge Of Them. Georg Christoph Lichtenberg, The Reflections Of Lichtenberg We Are Often More Agreeable Through Our Faults Than Our Good Qualities.

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

The World Is Full Of Pots Jeering At Kettles.

Whatever Pretended Causes We May Blame Our Afflictions Upon, It Is Often Nothing But Self-interest And Vanity That Produce Them.

Simplicity Is A Delicate Imposition.

Sobriety Is Concern For One's Health - Or Limited Capacity.

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.

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