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?
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULDThe only thing that should surprise us is that there are still some things that can surprise us.
More Francois de La Rochefoucauld Quotes
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There is a kind of elevation which does not depend on fortune; it is a certain air which distinguishes us, and seems to destine us for great things; it is a price which we imperceptibly set upon ourselves.
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The virtues and vices are all put in motion by interest.
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Passion makes idiots of the cleverest men, and makes the biggest idiots clever.
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The sure mark of one born with noble qualities is being born without envy.
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The defects and faults of the mind are like wounds in the body; after all imaginable care has been taken to heal them up, still there will be a scar left behind, and they are in continual danger of breaking the skin and bursting out again.
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What makes the pain we feel from shame and jealousy so cutting is that vanity can give us no assistance in bearing them.
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Some counterfeits reproduce so very well the truth that it would be a flaw of judgment not to be deceived by them.
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He who lives without folly isn’t so wise as he thinks.
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In the human heart new passions are forever being born; the overthrow of one almost always means the rise of another.
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Ridicule dishonors a man more than dishonor does.
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When a man must force himself to be faithful in his love, this is hardly better than unfaithfulness.
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If we judge love by most of its effects, it resembles rather hatred than affection.
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Few people have the wisdom to prefer the criticism that would do them good, to the praise that deceives them.
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It is often laziness and timidity that keep us within our duty while virtue gets all the credit.
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Confidence contributes more to conversation than wit.
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Quarrels would not last long if the fault was only on one side.
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Not all those who know their minds know their hearts as well.
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There is no disguise which can hide love for long where it exists, or simulate it where it does not.
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Love often leads on to ambition, but seldom does one return from ambition to love.
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Jealousy is bred in doubts. When those doubts change into certainties, then the passion either ceases or turns absolute madness.
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The surest way to be deceived is to consider oneself cleverer than others.
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We are more often treacherous through weakness than through calculation.
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Before we set our hearts too much upon anything, let us examine how happy they are, who already possess it.
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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.
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Hope, deceiving as it is, serves at least to lead us to the end of our lives by an agreeable route.
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Old age is a tyrant, who forbids, under pain of death, the pleasures of youth.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD