FRANÇOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD QUOTES VII

French author (1613-1680)

The rust of business is sometimes polished off in a camp; but never in a court.

FRANÇOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

Moral Maxims

Tags: business


Misers mistake gold for their good; whereas 'tis only a means of attaining it.

FRANÇOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

Moral Maxims

Tags: gold


'Tis as easy to deceive ourselves without our perceiving it, as 'tis difficult to deceive others without their perceiving it.

FRANÇOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

Moral Maxims

Tags: deception


The head can't long act the part of the heart.

FRANÇOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

Moral Maxims


Whatever care we take to conceal our passions under the appearance of piety and honor, they are always to be seen through these veils.

FRANÇOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims


There are some disguised falsehoods so like truths, that 'twould be to judge ill not to be deceived by them.

FRANÇOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

Moral Maxims

Tags: lying


Fortune turns everything to the advantage of her favorites.

FRANÇOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

Moral Maxims

Tags: fortune


The constancy of the wise is only the talent of concealing the agitation of their hearts.

FRANÇOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims


It is far easier to know men than to know man.

FRANÇOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims

Tags: men


Envy is destroyed by true friendship, and coquetry by true love.

FRANÇOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

Moral Maxims


We try to make a virtue of vices we are loath to correct.

FRANÇOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims

Tags: vice


We should not be much concerned about faults we have the courage to own.

FRANÇOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

Moral Maxims

Tags: faults


Cunning and treachery proceed from want of capacity.

FRANÇOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

Moral Maxims


Our actions are like blank rhymes, to which everyone applies what sense he pleases.

FRANÇOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

Moral Maxims

Tags: action


Did we not flatter ourselves, the flattery of others could never hurt us.

FRANÇOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

Moral Maxims

Tags: flattery


The ambitious deceive themselves in proposing an end to their ambition; that end, when attained, becomes a means.

FRANÇOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

Moral Maxims

Tags: ambition


Death and the sun can't be looked at steadily.

FRANÇOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

Moral Maxims

Tags: death


We may say of agreeableness, as distinct from beauty, that it is a symmetry whose rules are unknown.

FRANÇOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

Moral Maxims


To praise great actions is in some sense to share them.

FRANÇOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

Moral Maxims

Tags: praise


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.

FRANÇOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

Moral Maxims

Tags: cunning