Background Image

...

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.

-Francois De La Rochefoucauld

...

Please Wait....
Translating....

The Most Ingenious Men

Francois De La Rochefoucauld

...

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.

Views: 7

Topic

More From Francois De La Rochefoucauld

Politeness Of Mind Consists In Thinking Chaste And Refined Thoughts.

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

We Give Advice, We Do Not Inspire Conduct.

Too Great Haste To Repay An Obligation Is A Kind Of Ingratitude.

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

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

Second-rate Minds Usually Condemn Everything Beyond Their Grasp.

Positive Thinking

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

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.

To Establish Oneself In The World, One Does All One Can To Seem Established There Already.

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

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.

There Are Women Who Never Had An Intrigue; But There Are Scarce Any Who Never Had But One.

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

Avarice Is More Directly Opposed To Thrift Than Generosity Is.

Hope Is The Last Thing That Dies In Man.

We Often In Our Misfortunes Take That For Constancy And Patience Which Is Only Dejection Of Mind; We Suffer Without Daring To Holdup Our Heads, Just As Cowards Let Themselves Be Knocked On The Head Because They Have Not Courage To Strike Back.

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

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

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.

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.

Envy Is More Incapable Of Reconciliation Than Hatred Is.

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.

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

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

Why Can We Remember The Tiniest Detail That Has Happened To Us, And Not Remember How Many Times We Have Told It To The Same Person.

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

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

Things Often Offer Themselves To Our Mind In A More Finished Form In The Very First Thought, Than We Might Have Made Them By Muchart And Study.

We Are Almost Always Wearied In The Company Of Persons With Whom We Are Not Permitted To Be Weary.

It Requires Greater Virtues To Support Good Fortune Than Bad.

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

Characteristics

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.

We Are Always Bored By The Very People By Whom It Is Vital Not To Be Bored.

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

One May Outwit Another, But Not All The Others.

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

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.

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.

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

The Height Of Ability Consists In A Thorough Knowledge Of The Real Value Of Things, And Of The Genius Of The Age In Which We Live.

Sometimes We Meet A Fool With Wit, Never One With Discretion.

There Are Reproaches Which Praise, And Praises Which Defame.

Silence Is The Best Tactic For He Who Distrusts Himself.

There Is Something To Be Said For Jealousy, Because It Only Designs The Preservation Of Some Good Which We Either Have Or Think Wehave A Right To. But Envy Is A Raging Madness That Cannot Bear The Wealth Or Fortune Of Others.

One Kind Of Happiness Is To Know Exactly At What Point To Be Miserable.

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

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

The Desire Of Appearing Clever Often Prevents Our Becoming So.

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

The Reason We Do Not Let Our Friends See The Very Bottom Of Our Hearts Is Not So Much Distrust Of Them As Distrust Of Ourselves.

We Are Eager To Believe That Others Are Flawed Because We Are Eager To Believe In What We Wish For.

All Men Are Equally Proud. The Only Difference Is That Not All Take The Same Methods Of Showing It.

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

There Are Very Few Things Impossible In Themselves; And We Do Not Want Means To Conquer Difficulties So Much As Application And Resolution In The Use Of Means.

The Contempt Of Riches In The Philosophers Was A Concealed Desire Of Revenging On Fortune The Injustice Done To Their Merit, By Despising The Good She Denied Them.

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

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

Perfect Behavior Is Born Of Complete Indifference.

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

Nature Makes Merit, And Fortune Puts It To Work.

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

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

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

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

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

Thinkers Think And Doers Do. But Until The Thinkers Do And The Doers Think, Progress Will Be Just Another Word In The Already Overburdened Vocabulary By Sense.

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

In Love The Deceit Generally Outstrips The Distrust.

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

Moderation Is An Ostentatious Proof Of Our Strength Of Character.

Extreme Boredom Provides Its Own Antidote.

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

The Simplest Man With Passion Will Be More Persuasive Than The Most Eloquent Without.

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.

In All Professions Each Affects A Look And An Exterior To Appear What He Wishes The World To Believe That He Is. Thus We May Say That The Whole World Is Made Up Of Appearances.

We Are Much Harder On People Who Betray Us In Small Ways Than On People Who Betray Others In Great Ones.

A Lofty Mind Always Thinks Nobly, It Easily Creates Vivid, Agreeable, And Natural Fancies, Places Them In Their Best Light, Clothes Them With All Appropriate Adornments, Studies Others' Tastes, And Clears Away From Its Own Thoughts All That Is Useless And Disagreeable.

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.

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

Solemnity Is A Device Of The Body To Hide The Faults Of The Mind.

Gratitude Is A Lively Sense Of Benefits To Come.

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

Everyone Praises His Heart, None Dare Praise Their Understanding.

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

Idiots And Lunatics See Only Their Own Wit.

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

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.

Why Is It That Our Memory Is Good Enough To Retain The Least Triviality That Happens To Us, And Yet Not Good Enough To Recollect How Often We Have Told It To The Same Person?

Not Good Enough

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

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.

Old People Love To Give Good Advice; It Compensates Them For Their Inability To Set A Bad Example.

Inability To Love

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.

In Misfortune We Often Mistake Dejection For Constancy; We Bear It Without Daring To Look On It; Like Cowards, Who Suffer Themselves To Be Murdered Without Resistance.

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

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.

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

A Fashionable Woman Is Always In Love - With Herself.

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

The Heart Of Man Ever Finds A Constant Succession Of Passions, So That The Destroying And Pulling Down Of One Proves Generally Tobe Nothing Else But The Production And The Setting Up Of Another.

We Love Much Better Those Who Endeavor To Imitate Us, Than Those Who Strive To Equal Us. For Imitation Is A Sign Of Esteem, But Competition Of Envy.

One Honor Won Is A Surety For More.

It Is No Tragedy To Do Ungrateful People Favors, But It Is Unbearable To Be Indebted To A Scoundrel.

Ungrateful People

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

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

Self Improvement

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

Self-love Is The Greatest Of All Flatterers.

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

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.

For Envy, Like Lightning, Generally Strikes At The Top Or Any Point Which Sticks Out From The Ordinary Level. Lucretius, De Rerum Natura Our Envy Always Outlives The Felicity Of Its Object.

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

The Reason Why Most Women Have So Little Sense Of Friendship Is That This Is But A Cold And Flat Passion To Those That Have Felt That Of Love.

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

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

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

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.

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

What Makes Us So Bitter Against People Who Outwit Us Is That They Think Themselves Cleverer Than We Are.

There Are Some People Upon Whom Their Very Faults And Failings Sit Gracefully; And There Are Others Whose Very Excellencies And Accomplishments Do Not Become Them.

We Have No Patience With Other People's Vanity Because It Is Offensive To Our Own.

In The Misfortunes Of Our Best Friends We Always Find Something Not Altogether Displeasing To Us.

Women Find It Far More Difficult To Overcome Their Inclination To Coquetry Than To Overcome Their Love.

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

The Only Thing Constant In Life Is Change

Women Do Not Know All Their Powers Of Flirtation.

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

To Praise Princes For Virtues They Do Not Possess Is To Insult Them Without Fear Of Consequences.

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

Positive Thinking

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.

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.

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.

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

There Are Two Sorts Of Constancy In Love One Arises From Continually Discovering In The Loved Person New Subjects For Love, The Other Arises From Our Making A Merit Of Being Constant.

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

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

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

Make Others Happy

There Is Scarcely Any Man Sufficiently Clever To Appreciate All The Evil He Does.

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

We Often See Malefactors, When They Are Led To Execution, Put On Resolution And A Contempt Of Death Which, In Truth, Is Nothing Else But Fearing To Look It In The Face--so That This Pretended Bravery May Very Truly Be Said To Do The Same Good Office To Their Mind That The Blindfold Does To Their Eyes.

As We Grow Older, We Increase In Folly--and In Wisdom.

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.

We Are Inconsolable At Being Deceived By Our Enemies And Being Betrayed By Our Friends, Yet We Are Often Content In Be Being Treated Like That By Our Own Selves.

The Good Or The Bad Fortune Of Men Depends Not Less Upon Their Own Dispositions Than Upon Fortune.

We Like To Read Others But We Do Not Like To Be Read.

Understanding Others

Few Men Know All The Ill They Do.

The Surest Way To Be Deceived Is To Consider Oneself Cleverer Than Others.

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

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

That Which Makes The Vanity Of Others Unbearable To Us Is That Which Wounds Our Own.

In Friendship, As In Love, We Are Often More Happy From The Things We Are Ignorant Of Than From Those We Are Acquainted With.

It Is Often Laziness And Timidity That Keep Us Within Our Duty While Virtue Gets All The Credit.

The Esteem Of Good Men Is The Reward Of Our Worth, But The Reputation Of The World In General Is The Gift Of Our Fate.

We Are Never So Ridiculous Through What We Are As Through What We Pretend To Be.

What We Take For Virtue Is Often Nothing But An Assemblage Of Different Actions, And Of Different Interests, That Fortune Or Our Industry Knows How To Arrange.

Intrepidity Is An Extraordinary Strength Of Soul, Which Raises It Above The Troubles, Disorders And Emotions Which The Sight Of Great Perils Can Arouse In It; By This Strength Heroes Maintain A Calm Aspect And Preserve Their Reason And Liberty In The Most Surprising And Terrible Accidents.

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

Power Over Others

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

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

Our Wisdom Lies As Much At The Mercy Of Fortune As Our Possessions Do.

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

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

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

Before We Passionately Desire A Thing, We Should Examine The Happiness Of Its Possessor.

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.

No Men Are Oftener Wrong Than Those That Can Least Bear To Be So.

Confidence In Conversation Has A Greater Share Than Wit.

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.

The Most Clever And Polite Are Content With Only Seeming Attentive While We Perceive In Their Mind And Eyes That At The Very Time They Are Wandering From What Is Said And Desire To Return To What They Want To Say.

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.

There Is Many A Virtuous Woman Weary Of Her Trade.

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

Men May Boast Of Their Great Actions; But They Are More Often The Effects Of Chance Than Of Design.

Moderation Is Caused By The Fear Of Exciting The Envy And Contempt Which Those Merit Who Are Intoxicated With Their Good Fortune; It Is A Vain Display Of Our Strength Of Mind, And In Short The Moderation Of Men At Their Greatest Height Is Only A Desire To Appear Greater Than Their Fortune.

Almost Everyone Takes Pleasure In Repaying Trifling Obligations, Very Many Feel Gratitude For Those That Are Moderate; But There Is Scarcely Anyone Who Is Not Ungrateful For Those That Are Weighty.

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

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

Jealousy Is Always Born With Love, But Does Not Die With It. In Jealousy There Is More Of Self-love Than Of Love To Another.

Few Things Are Impossible In Themselves: Application To Make Them Succeed Fails Us More Often Than The Means.

We Arrive At The Various Stages Of Life Quite As Novices.

The Truest Comparison We Can Make Of Love Is To Liken It To A Fever; We Have No More Power Over The One Than The Other, Either As To Its Violence Or Duration.

Politeness Of The Mind Is To Have Delicate Thoughts

What Is Called Liberality Is Often Merely The Vanity Of Giving.

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

Ordinary Men Commonly Condemn What Is Beyond Them.

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

As Uncommon A Thing As True Love Is, It Is Yet Easier To Find Than True Friendship.

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

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.

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

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

The Reason Why So Few People Are Agreeable In Conversation Is That Each Is Thinking More About What He Intends To Say Than Others Are Saying.

Listening To Others

The Constancy Of The Wise Is Only The Talent Of Concealing The Agitation Of Their Hearts.

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

However Rare True Love May Be, It Is Less So Than True Friendship.

Unfaithfulness Ought To Extinguish Love, And We Should Not Be Jealous When There Is Reason To Be. Only Those Who Give No Grounds For Jealousy Are Worthy Of It.

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

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

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.

One Kind Of Flirtation Is To Boast We Never Flirt.

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

Trending Author

Morris Chestnut

Leighton Meester

Category