Most of our faults are more pardonable than the means we use to conceal them.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULDThat good disposition which boasts of being most tender is often stifled by the least urging of self-interest.
More Francois de La Rochefoucauld Quotes
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Mediocre minds usually dismiss anything which reaches beyond their own understanding.
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Old men are fond of giving good advice to console themselves for their inability to give bad examples.
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We have no patience with other people’s vanity because it is offensive to our own.
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In friendship as well as love, ignorance very often contributes more to our happiness than knowledge.
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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.
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What is called generosity is usually only the vanity of giving; we enjoy the vanity more than the thing given.
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There are various sorts of curiosity; one is from interest, which makes us desire to know that which may be useful to us; and the other, from pride which comes from the wish to know what others are ignorant of.
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Hypocrisy is the homage vice pays to virtue.
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Silence is the safest course for any man to adopt who distrust himself.
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Repentance is not so much remorse for what we have done as the fear of the consequences.
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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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Nothing is impossible; there are ways that lead to everything, and if we had sufficient will we should always have sufficient means. It is often merely for an excuse that we say things are impossible.
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The principal point of cleverness is to know how to value things just as they deserve.
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If it were not for the company of fools, a witty man would often be greatly at a loss.
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Those who occupy their minds with small matters, generally become incapable of greatness.
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Ridicule dishonors a man more than dishonor does.
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Pride, which inspires us with so much envy, is sometimes of use toward the moderating of it too.
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The passions are the only orators which always persuade.
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In the misfortunes of our best friends we always find something not altogether displeasing to us.
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We would frequently be ashamed of our good deeds if people saw all of the motives that produced them.
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Perfect valour consists in doing without witnesses that which we would be capable of doing before everyone.
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We always love those who admire us, but we do not always love those whom we admire.
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No man is clever enough to know all the evil he does.
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However greatly we distrust the sincerity of those we converse with, yet still we think they tell more truth to us than to anyone else.
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Heat of blood makes young people change their inclinations often, and habit makes old ones keep to theirs a great while.
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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.
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