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

-Francois De La Rochefoucauld

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We May Seem Great

Francois De La Rochefoucauld

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

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Our Repentances Are Generally Not So Much A Concern And Remorse For The Harm We Have Done, As A Fear Of The Harm We May Have Brought Upon Ourselves.

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

Ridicule Dishonours More Than Dishonour.

We Only Confess Our Little Faults To Persuade People That We Have No Big Ones.

Keeping Secrets

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

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

Often We Are Firm From Weakness, And Audacious From Timidity.

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

Spiritual Health Is No More Stable Than Bodily; And Though We May Seem Unaffected By The Passions We Are Just As Liable To Be Carried Away By Them As To Fall Ill When In Good Health.

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

Perfect Behavior Is Born Of Complete Indifference.

One Cannot Answer For His Courage When He Has Never Been In Danger.

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

Our Envy Always Outlives The Felicity Of Its Object.

Few Men Know All The Ill They Do.

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

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

Hatred Is Stronger Than Friendship.

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

If We Did Not Have Pride, We Would Not Complain Of It In Others.

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

Neither The Sun Nor Death Can Be Looked At Steadily.

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.

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

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

Sometimes There Are Accidents In Our Lives The Skillful Extrication From Which Demands A Little Folly.

Absence Diminishes Mediocre Passions And Increases Great Ones, As The Wind Extinguishes Candles And Fans Fires.

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 Easily Forget Crimes That Are Known To None But Ourselves.

Love Of Fame, Fear Of Disgrace, Schemes For Advancement, Desire To Make Life Comfortable And Pleasant, And The Urge To Humiliate Others Are Often At The Root Of The Valour Men Hold In Such High Esteem.

Truth Is The Foundation And The Reason Of The Perfection Of Beauty, For Of Whatever Stature A Thing May Be, It Cannot Be Beautiful-and Perfect, Unless It Be Truly What It Should Be, And Possess Truly All That It Should Have.

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.

The Old Begin To Complain Of The Conduct Of The Young When They Themselves Are No Longer Able To Set A Bad Example.

There Are Many Predicaments In Life That One Must Be A Bit Crazy To Escape From.

Politeness Of Mind Consists In Thinking Chaste And Refined Thoughts.

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

Some People Resemble Ballads Which Are Only Sung For A Certain Time.

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

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

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

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.

There Are Few People More Convinced Of Their Own Genius Than Those Who Complain Of How Stupid They Are.

Simplicity Is A Delicate Imposition.

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

Ordinary Men Commonly Condemn What Is Beyond Them.

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.

Too Great Cleverness Is But Deceptive Delicacy, True Delicacy Is The Most Substantial Cleverness.

Nothing Should Lessen Our Satisfaction With Ourselves As Much As When We Notice That We Disapprove Of Something At One Time That We Approve Of At Another Time.

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

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.

Tastes In Young People Are Changed By Natural Impetuosity, And In The Aged Are Preserved By Habit.

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

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

Pity Is Often A Reflection Of Our Own Evils In The Ills Of Others. It Is A Delicate Foresight Of The Troubles Into Which We May Fall.

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

You Are Never So Easily Fooled As When Trying To Fool Someone Else.

It's The Height Of Folly To Want To Be The Only Wise One.

The Mind Cannot Long Play The Heart's Role.

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

Love Is One And The Same In The Original; But There Are A Thousand Different Copies Of It.

Those Who Are Condemned To Death Affect Sometimes A Constancy And Contempt For Death Which Is Only The Fear Of Facing It; So That One May Say That This Constancy And Contempt Are To Their Mind What The Bandage Is To Their Eyes.

It Is A Mighty Error To Suppose That None But Violent And Strong Passions, Such As Love And Ambition, Are Able To Vanquish The Rest. Even Idleness, As Feeble And Languishing As It Is, Sometimes Reigns Over Them; It Usurps The Throne And Sits Paramount Over All The Designs And Actions Of Our Lives, And Imperceptibly Wastes And Destroys All Our Passions And All Our Virtues.

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

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.

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.

Very Few People Are Acquainted With Death. They Undergo It, Commonly, Not So Much Out Of Resolution As Custom And Insensitivity; And Most Men Die Because They Cannot Help It.

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.

Death, Like The Sun, Cannot Be Looked At Steadily.

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

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.

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

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

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.

Some Follies Are Caught, Like Contagious Diseases.

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

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

We Sometimes Imagine We Hate Flattery, But We Only Hate The Way We Are Flattered.

Great Men Should Not Have Great Faults.

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

The Desire Of Appearing Clever Often Prevents Our Becoming So.

What Men Have Called Friendship Is Only A Social Arrangement, A Mutual Adjustment Of Interests, An Interchange Of Services Given And Received; It Is, In Sum, Simply A Business From Which Those Involved Propose To Derive A Steady Profit For Their Own Self-love.

A Fashionable Woman Is Always In Love - With Herself.

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

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.

Men More Easily Renounce Their Interests Than Their Tastes.

Boredom ... Causes Us To Neglect More Duties Than Does Interest.

Imagination Does Not Enable Us To Invent As Many Different Contradictions As There Are By Nature In Every Heart.

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

Jealousy Springs More From Love Of Self Than From Love Of Another.

The Common Foible Of Women Who Have Been Handsome Is To Forget That They Are No Longer So.

Self-love Increases Or Diminishes For Us The Good Qualities Of Our Friends, In Proportion To The Satisfaction We Feel With Them; And We Judge Of Their Merit By The Manner In Which They Act Towards Us.

However We May Conceal Our Passions Under The Veil ... There Is Always Some Place Where They Peep Out.

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

A Good Woman Is A Hidden Treasure; Who Discovers Her Will Do Well Not To Boast About It.

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

It Is Praiseworthy Even To Attempt A Great Action.

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 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.

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.

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

We Pardon To The Extent That We Love.

We Should Wish For Few Things With Eagerness, If We Perfectly Knew The Nature Of That Which Was The Object Of Our Desire.

When We Seek Reconciliation With Our Enemies, It Is Commonly Out Of A Desire To Better Our Own Condition, A Being Harassed And Tired Out With A State Of War, And A Fear Of Some Ill Accident Which We Are Willing To Prevent.

We Judge So Superficially Of Things, That Common Words And Actions Spoke And Done In An Agreeable Manner, With Some Knowledge Of What Passes In The World, Often Succeed Beyond The Greatest Ability.

If We Never Flattered Ourselves We Should Have But Scant Pleasure.

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

Luxury And Excessive Refinement Are Sure Forerunners Of The Decadence Of States, Because When All Individuals Seek Their Own Interests They Neglect The Public Weal.

There Is Real Love Just As There Are Real Ghosts; Every Person Speaks Of It, Few Persons Have Seen It.

It Is With True Love As It Is With Ghosts; Everyone Talks About It, But Few Have Seen It.

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.

Self-love Is The Greatest Of All Flatterers.

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

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

Misfortunes Of Others

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

A Man Would Rather Say Evil Of Himself Than Say Nothing.

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.]

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

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

Inability To Love

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

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

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

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.

As Long As We Love, We Can Forgive.

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.

Cunning And Treachery Proceed From Want Of Capacity.

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

The Heart Is Forever Making The Head Its Fool.

Hope Is The Last Thing That Dies In Man.

The Older A Fool Is, The Worse He Is.

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

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

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.

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

We Say Little, When Vanity Does Not Make Us Speak.

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

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

A Clever Man Should Handle His Interests So That Each Will Fall In Suitable Order Of Their Value.

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

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

If We Are To Judge Of Love By Its Consequences, It More Nearly Resembles Hatred Than Friendship.

We Are Not Fond Of Praising, And Never Praise Any One Except From Interested Motives. Praise Is A Clever, Concealed, And Delicate Flattery, Which Gratifies In Different Ways The Giver And The Receiver. The One Takes It As A Recompense Of His Merit, And The Other Bestows It To Display His Equity And Discernment.

A Man's Wits Are Better Employed In Bearing Up Under The Misfortunes That Lie Upon Him At Present Than In Foreseeing Those That May Come Upon Him Hereafter.

It Is Worth Nothing To Be Young Without Being Beautiful, Nor To Be Beautiful Without Being Young.

In The Human Heart New Passions Are Forever Being Born; The Overthrow Of One Almost Always Means The Rise Of Another.

A Fool Has Not Material Enough To Be Good. [fr., Un Sot N'a Pas Assez D'etoffe Pour Etre Bon.]

One May Outwit Another, But Not All The Others.

Sometimes A Fool Has Talent, But Never Judgment.

Humility Is Often Only Feigned Submission Which People Use To Render Others Submissive. It Is A Subterfuge Of Pride Which Lowers Itself In Order To Rise.

The Virtues And Vices Are All Put In Motion By Interest.

Everyone Blames His Memory, No One Blames His Judgment.

Avarice Is More Opposite To Economy Than Liberality.

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

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

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

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.

We Are Never So Easily Deceived As When We Imagine We Are Deceiving Others.

Deceiving Others

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

Humility Is The Sure Evidence Of Christian Virtues. Without It, We Retain All Our Faults Still, And They Are Only Covered Over With Pride, Which Hides Them From Other Men's Observation, And Sometimes From Our Own Too.

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

Marriage Is The Only War In Which You Sleep With The Enemy.

The Greatest Of All Gifts Is The Power To Estimate Things At Their True Worth

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

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

Keeping Secrets

Jealousy Contains More Of Self-love Than Of Love.

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.

The Reason We Bitterly Hate Those Who Deceive Us Is Because They Think They Are Cleverer Than We Are.

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

Some People Are Like Popular Songs That You Only Sing For A Short Time.

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

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

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.

We Give Advice, But We Cannot Give The Wisdom To Profit By It.

The Accent Of One's Birthplace Remains In The Mind And In The Heart As In One's Speech.

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

There Are Certain People Fated To Be Fools; They Not Only Commit Follies By Choice, But Are Even Constrained To Do So By Fortune.

The More One Loves A Mistress, The More One Is Ready To Hate Her.

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

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

Pride, Which Inspires Us With So Much Envy, Is Sometimes Of Use Toward The Moderating Of It Too.

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

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

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

Old Fools Are Greater Fools Than Young Ones.

The Hunger For Applause Is The Source For All Conscious Literature And Heroism

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

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

Gallantry Of Mind Consists In Saying Flattering Things In An Agreeable Manner.

There Are Several Remedies Which Will Cure Love, But There Are No Infallible Ones.

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

Friendship Is Insipid To Those Who Have Experienced Love.

Gracefulness Is To The Body What Understanding Is To The Mind.

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

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

What Is Perfectly True Is Perfectly Witty.

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

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

There Are Some Bad Qualities Which Make Great Talents.

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

We Are More Often Treacherous Through Weakness Than Through Calculation.

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