There are crimes which become innocent and even glorious through their splendor, number and excess.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULDOne can find women who have never had one love affair, but it is rare indeed to find any who have had only one.
More Francois de La Rochefoucauld Quotes
-
-
The surest way to be deceived is to consider oneself cleverer than others.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD -
What seems to be generosity is often no more than disguised ambition, which overlooks a small interest in order to secure a great one.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD -
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 -
Politeness is a desire to be treated politely, and to be esteemed polite oneself.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD -
We would frequently be ashamed of our good deeds if people saw all of the motives that produced them.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD -
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.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD -
The accent of one’s birthplace remains in the mind and in the heart as in one’s speech.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD -
Most of our faults are more pardonable than the means we use to conceal them.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD -
Love often leads on to ambition, but seldom does one return from ambition to love.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD -
The heart is forever making the head its fool.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD -
We have no patience with other people’s vanity because it is offensive to our own.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD -
We say little, when vanity does not make us speak.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD -
We only acknowledge small faults in order to make it appear that we are free from great ones.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD -
We are more often treacherous through weakness than through calculation.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD -
It is often laziness and timidity that keep us within our duty while virtue gets all the credit.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD -
We promise in proportion to our hopes, and we deliver in proportion to our fears.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD -
Though nature be ever so generous, yet can she not make a hero alone. Fortune must contribute her part too; and till both concur, the work cannot be perfected.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD -
The sure way to be cheated is to think one’s self more cunning than others.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD -
Repentance is not so much remorse for what we have done as the fear of the consequences.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD -
In most of mankind gratitude is merely a secret hope of further favors.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD -
There are few virtuous women who are not bored with their trade.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD -
When we are in love we often doubt that which we most believe.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD -
People’s personalities, like buildings, have various facades, some pleasant to view, some not.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD -
To achieve greatness one should live as if they will never die.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD -
Pride, which inspires us with so much envy, is sometimes of use toward the moderating of it too.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD -
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.
FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD