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Francois de La Rochefoucauld

100 quotes

François de La Rochefoucauld (1613–1680) was a French moralist and author of *Maxims*, a collection of pithy observations about human behavior and society. His sharp, often cynical reflections on vanity, self-interest, and the gap between appearance and reality remain strikingly relevant centuries later.

“We should often feel ashamed of our best actions if the world could see all the motives which produced them.”

— Francois de La Rochefoucauld

Best

All Quotes by Francois de La Rochefoucauld

“A true friend is the greatest of all blessings, and that which we take the least care of all to acquire.”

— Francois de La Rochefoucauld

Friendship

“We may sooner be brought to love them that hate us, than them that love us more than we would have them do.”

— Francois de La Rochefoucauld

Love

“If we resist our passions, it is more due to their weakness than our strength.”

— Francois de La Rochefoucauld

Strength

“If we are to judge of love by its consequences, it more nearly resembles hatred than friendship.”

— Francois de La Rochefoucauld

Friendship

“We should often feel ashamed of our best actions if the world could see all the motives which produced them.”

— Francois de La Rochefoucauld

Best

“Great souls are not those who have fewer passions and more virtues than others, but only those who have greater designs.”

— Francois de La Rochefoucauld

Great

“There is no disguise which can hide love for long where it exists, or simulate it where it does not.”

— Francois de La Rochefoucauld

Love

“Old age is a tyrant, who forbids, under pain of death, the pleasures of youth.”

— Francois de La Rochefoucauld

Age

“There are few virtuous women who are not bored with their trade.”

— Francois de La Rochefoucauld

Women

“There are but very few men clever enough to know all the mischief they do.”

— Francois de La Rochefoucauld

Men

“It is easier to know men in general, than men in particular.”

— Francois de La Rochefoucauld

Men

“To know how to hide one's ability is great skill.”

— Francois de La Rochefoucauld

Great

“We pardon to the extent that we love.”

— Francois de La Rochefoucauld

Love

“It is a great act of cleverness to be able to conceal one's being clever.”

— Francois de La Rochefoucauld

Great

“We are so used to dissembling with others that in time we come to deceive and dissemble with ourselves.”

— Francois de La Rochefoucauld

Time

“There is only one kind of love, but there are a thousand imitations.”

— Francois de La Rochefoucauld

Love

“No men are oftener wrong than those that can least bear to be so.”

— Francois de La Rochefoucauld

Men

“Only the contemptible fear contempt.”

— Francois de La Rochefoucauld

Fear

“Few things are impracticable in themselves and it is for want of application, rather than of means, that men fail to succeed.”

— Francois de La Rochefoucauld

Men

“There is no better proof of a man's being truly good than his desiring to be constantly under the observation of good men.”

— Francois de La Rochefoucauld

Men