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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.

-Francois De La Rochefoucauld

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What We Take For

Francois De La Rochefoucauld

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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.

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More From Francois De La Rochefoucauld

Behind Many Acts That Are Thought Ridiculous There Lie Wise And Weighty Motives.

The Breeding We Give Young People Is Ordinarily But An Additional Self-love, By Which We Make Them Have A Better Opinion Of Themselves.

Generosity Is The Vanity Of Giving.

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

We Often Persuade Ourselves To Love People Who Are More Powerful Than We Are, Yet Interest Alone Produces Our Friendship; We Do Not Give Our Hearts Away For The Good We Wish To Do, But For That We Expect To Receive.

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.

The Intellect Is Always Fooled By The Heart.

The Strongest Symptom Of Wisdom In Man Is His Being Sensible Of His Own Follies.

Great And Glorious Events Which Dazzle The Beholder Are Represented By Politicians As The Outcome Of Grand Designs Whereas They Are Usually Products Of Temperaments And Passions.

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

Gratitude Is Like The Good Faith Of Traders: It Maintains Commerce, And We Often Pay, Not Because It Is Just To Discharge Our Debts, But That We May More Readily Find People To Trust Us.

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

The Only Good Imitations Are Those That Poke Fun At Bad Originals.

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.

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

Passion Very Often Makes The Wisest Men Fools, And Very Often Too Inspires The Greatest Fools With Wit.

As Love Increases, Prudence Diminishes.

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

A Man Is Perhaps Ungrateful, But Often Less Chargeable With Ingratitude Than His Benefactor Is.

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.

There Are Some Faults Which, When Well Managed, Make A Greater Figure Than Virtue Itself.

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

Were We Faultless, We Would Not Derive Such Satisfaction From Remarking The Faults Of Others.

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

He Who Lives Without Folly Isn't So Wise As He Thinks.

Flattery Is A Base Coin Which Is Current Only Through Our Vanity.

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

The Heart Is Forever Making The Head Its Fool.

What Men Call Friendship Is No More Than A Partnership, A Mutual Care Of Interests, An Exchange Of Favors - In A Word, It Is A Sort Of Traffic, In Which Self-love Ever Proposes To Be The Gainer.

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

The Only Real Voyage Of Discovery Consists Not In Seeking New Landscapes But In Having New Eyes. The Glory Of Great Men Should Always Be Measured By The Means They Have Used To Acpuire It.

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

A Small Degree Of Wit, Accompanied By Good Sense, Is Less Tiresome In The Long Run Than A Great Amount Of Wit Without It.

Second-rate Minds Usually Condemn Everything Beyond Their Grasp.

Positive Thinking

The Passions Often Engender Their Contraries.

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

Hatred Is Stronger Than Friendship.

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

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

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

Love Is The Smallest Part Of Gallantry.

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

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

We Feel Good And Ill Only In Proportion To Our Self-love.

The Applause We Give Those Who Are New To Society Often Proceeds From A Secret Envying Of Those Already Established.

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

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

As Great Minds Have The Faculty Of Saying A Great Deal In A Few Words, So Lesser Minds Have A Talent Of Talking Much, And Saying Nothing.

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.

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

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.]

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

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

The Intention Of Never Deceiving Often Exposes Us To Deception.

We Never Desire Strongly, What We Desire Rationally.

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

Absence Abates A Moderate Passion And Intensifies A Great One - As The Wind Blows Out A Candle But Fans Fire Into Flame.

The Greatest Miracle Of Love Is The Cure Of Coquetry.

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

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

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

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.

There Is At Least As Much Eloquence In The Voice, Eyes, And Air Of A Speaker As In His Choice Of Words.

We Forgive Just So Long As We Love.

The Passions Are The Only Orators That Always Persuade: They Are, As It Were, A Natural Art, The Rules Of Which Are Infallible; And The Simplest Man With Passion Is More Persuasive Than The Most Eloquent Without It.

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

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.

Propriety Is The Least Of All Laws, And The Most Observed.

The Vices Enter Into The Composition Of The Virtues, As Poisons Into That Of Medicines. Prudence Collects And Arranges Them, And Uses Them Beneficially Against The Ills Of Life.

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

A Person Well Satisfied With Themselves Is Seldom Satisfied With Others, And Others, Rarely Are With Them.

It Is Harder To Hide The Feelings We Have Than To Feign The Ones We Do Not Have.

There Are Few Virtuous Women Who Are Not Bored With Their Trade.

Nothing Is So Catching As Example.

Of All The Violent Passions, The One That Becomes A Woman Best Is Love.

Novelty Is To Love Like Bloom To Fruit; It Gives A Luster Which Is Easily Effaced, But Never Returns.

The Passions Are The Only Orators Which Always Persuade.

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

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

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

Keeping Secrets

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.

There Are Some Disguised Falsehoods So Like Truths, That 'twould Be To Judge Ill Not To Be Deceived By Them.

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

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

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

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

There Are No Circumstances, However Unfortunate, That Clever People Do Not Extract Some Advantage From.

We Would Rather See Those To Whom We Do Good, Than Those Who Do Good To Us.

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

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

Preserving The Serious Health Condition Is Usually Painful.

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

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

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

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

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

The Temperament That Produces A Talent For Little Things Is The Opposite Of That Required For Great Ones.

There Are Very Few People Who Are Not Ashamed Of Having Been In Love When They No Longer Love Each Other.

Some Good Qualities Are Like The Senses: Those Who Are Entirely Deprived Of Them Can Have No Notion Of Them.

He Who Lives Without Committing Any Folly Is Not So Wise As He Thinks. [fr., Qui Vit Sans Folie N'est Pas Si Sage Qu'il Croit.]

If Vanity Does Not Entirely Overthrow The Virtues, At Least It Makes Them All Totter.

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.

Flattery Is False Money, Which Would Not Be Current Were It Not For Our Vanity.

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.

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.

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

There Is No Praise We Have Not Lavished Upon Prudence; And Yet She Cannot Assure To Us The Most Trifling Event.

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

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.

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.]

A Man's Worth Has Its Season, Like Fruit.

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

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

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

There Are Follies As Catching As Contagious Disorders.

Hope And Fear Are Inseparable. There Is No Hope Without Fear, Nor Any Fear Without Hope.

Being A Blockhead Is Sometimes The Best Security Against Being Cheated By A Man Of Wit.

If It Requires Great Tact To Speak To The Purpose, It Requires No Less To Know When To Be Silent.

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

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.

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

The Constancy Of Sages Is Nothing But The Art Of Locking Up Their Agitation In Their Hearts.

Those Only Are Despicable Who Fear To Be Despised.

The Qualities We Have, Make Us So Ridiculous As Those Which We Affect.

It Is Impossible To Love A Second Time What We Have Really Ceased To Love.

Idiots And Lunatics See Only Their Own Wit.

We Would Rather Speak Ill Of Ourselves Than Not Talk About Ourselves At All.

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

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.

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.

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

We Do Not Praise Others, Ordinarily, But In Order To Be Praised Ourselves.

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.

If You Cannot Find Peace In Yourself, It Is Useless To Look For It Elsewhere.

Extreme Boredom Provides Its Own Antidote.

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.

Jealousy Is Nothing More Than A Fear Of Abandonment

Women In Love Sooner Forgive Great Indiscretions Than Small Infidelities.

The Distempers Of The Soul Have Their Relapses, As Many And As Dangerous As Those Of The Body; And What We Take For A Perfect Cureis Generally Either An Abatement Of The Same Disease Or The Changing Of That For Another.

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

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

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

The Happiness And Unhappiness Of Men Depends As Much On Their Ethics As On Fortune.

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.

Humility Is Often Only The Putting On Of A Submissiveness By Which Men Hope To Bring Other People To Submit To Them; It Is A Morecalculated Sort Of Pride, Which Debases Itself With A Design Of Being Exalted; And Though This Vice Transform Itself Into A Thousand Several Shapes, Yet The Disguise Is Never More Effectual Nor More Capable Of Deceiving The World Than When Concealed Under A Form Of Humility.

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

There Are Few People Who Would Not Be Ashamed Of Being Loved When They Love No Longer.

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

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 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.

Few People Have The Wisdom To Prefer The Criticism That Would Do Them Good, To The Praise That Deceives Them.

We Often Act Treacherously More From Weakness Than From A Fixed Motive.

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.

Coquetry Is The Essential Characteristic, And The Prevalent Humor Of Women; But They Do Not All Practice It, Because The Coquetry Of Some Is Restrained By Fear Or By Reason.

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

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

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

Power Over Others

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.

The One Thing People Are The Most Liberal With, Is Their Advice.

We Are Lazier In Our Minds Than In Our Bodies.

We Give Nothing So Freely As Advice.

The Ambitious Deceive Themselves In Proposing An End To Their Ambition; That End, When Attained, Becomes A Means.

Though Men Are Apt To Flatter And Exalt Themselves With Their Great Achievements, Yet These Are, In Truth, Very Often Owing Not So Much To Design As Chance.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

Friendship Is Insipid To Those Who Have Experienced Love.

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

Only The Contemptible Fear Contempt.

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

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

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.

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.

We Are Never So Generous As When Giving Advice.

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

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

Familiarity Is A Suspension Of Almost All The Laws Of Civility, Which Libertinism Has Introduced Into Society Under The Notion Of Ease.

We Rarely Ever Perceive Others As Being Sensible, Except For Those Who Agree With Us.

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

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

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

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.

To Know Oneself Is Not Necessarily To Improve Oneself

Knowing Oneself

One Can Find Women Who Have Never Had One Love Affair, But It Is Rare Indeed To Find Any Who Have Had Only One.

It Is With Sincere Affection Or Friendship As With Ghosts And Apparitions,--a Thing That Everybody Talks Of, And Scarce Any Hath Seen.

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.

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

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

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

Honest People Will Respect Us For Our Merit: The Public, For Our Luck.

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.

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

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

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

A Woman Often Thinks She Regrets The Lover, When She Only Regrets The Love.

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