110+ Francois de la Rochefoucauld Quotes (Introspective, Candid And Witty)

Francois de la Rochefoucauld was a French writer and moralist of the 17th century. He is best known for his maxims, which are short, pithy observations on human nature and behavior. He was a major influence on the development of French literature and is remembered as one of the great masters of the literary form of the maxim.

Top 10 Francois De La Rochefoucauld Quotes

1. Good advice is something a man gives when he is too old to set a bad example.
2. True love is like ghosts, which everyone talks about and few have seen.
3. However rare true love may be, it is less so than true friendship.
4. All women are flirts, but some are restrained by shyness, and others by sense.
5. Absence diminishes mediocre passions and increases great ones, as the wind extinguishes candles and fans fires.
6. There is only one kind of love, but there are a thousand imitations.
7. A work can become modern only if it is first postmodern. Postmodernism thus understood is not modernism at its end but in the nascent state, and this state is constant.
8. When we are unable to find tranquility within ourselves, it is useless to seek it elsewhere.
9. To eat is a necessity, but to eat intelligently is an art.
10. No persons are more frequently wrong, than those who will not admit they are wrong.

Francois de la Rochefoucauld Image Quotes

True love is like ghosts, which everyone talks about and few have seen. — Francois de la Rochefoucauld

However rare true love may be, it is less so than true friendship. — Francois de la Rochefoucauld

All women are flirts, but some are restrained by shyness, and others by sense. — Francois de la Rochefoucauld

There is only one kind of love, but there are a thousand imitations. — Francois de la Rochefoucauld

To eat is a necessity, but to eat intelligently is an art. — Francois de la Rochefoucauld

Francois De La Rochefoucauld Short Quotes

• Nothing hinders a thing from being natural so much as the straining ourselves to make it seem so.
• Most of our faults are more pardonable than the means we use to conceal them.
• The accent of one's birthplace remains in the mind and in the heart as in one's speech.
• Marriage is the only war in which you sleep with the enemy.
• If we are incapable of finding peace in ourselves, it is pointless to search elsewhere.
• It is more shameful to distrust our friends than to be deceived by them.
• Decency is the least of all laws, but yet it is the law which is most strictly observed.
• Self-love is the greatest of all flatterers.
• People's personalities, like buildings, have various facades, some pleasant to view, some not.
• We promise according to our hopes and perform according to our fears.

Francois de la Rochefoucauld Famous Quotes And Sayings

True love is like ghosts, which everyone talks about and few have seen. — Francois de la Rochefoucauld

However rare true love may be, it is less so than true friendship. — Francois de la Rochefoucauld

All women are flirts, but some are restrained by shyness, and others by sense. — Francois de la Rochefoucauld

The passions are the only orators that always persuade: they are, as it were, a natural art, the rules of which are infallible; and the simplest man with passion is more persuasive than the most eloquent without it. — Francois de la Rochefoucauld

There is only one kind of love, but there are a thousand imitations. — Francois de la Rochefoucauld

To eat is a necessity, but to eat intelligently is an art. — Francois de la Rochefoucauld

It is only persons of firmness that can have real gentleness. Those who appear gentle are, in general, only a weak character, which easily changes into asperity. — Francois de la Rochefoucauld

Most people know no other way of judging men's worth but by the vogue they are in, or the fortunes they have met with. — Francois de la Rochefoucauld

There are no accidents so unlucky from which clever people are not able to reap some advantage, and none so lucky that the foolish are not able to turn them to their own disadvantage. — Francois de la Rochefoucauld

To listen closely and reply well is the highest perfection we are able to attain in the art of conversation. — Francois de la Rochefoucauld

Few people have the wisdom to prefer the criticism that would do them good, to the praise that deceives them. — 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

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

Those who occupy their minds with small matters, generally become incapable of greatness. — Francois de la Rochefoucauld

We are more interested in making others believe we are happy than in trying to be happy ourselves. — Francois de la Rochefoucauld

Moderation is an ostentatious proof of our strength of character. — Francois de la Rochefoucauld

Sincerity is an openness of heart; we find it in very few people; what we usually see is only an artful dissimulation to win the confidence of others. — Francois de la Rochefoucauld

Old people love to give good advice; it compensates them for their inability to set a bad example. — Francois de la Rochefoucauld

We pardon to the extent that we love. — Francois de la Rochefoucauld

Weakness of character is the only defect which cannot be amended. — 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

We like to see others, but don't like others to see through us. — Francois de la Rochefoucauld

Sometimes accidents happen in life from which we have need of a little madness to extricate ourselves successfully — Francois de la Rochefoucauld

The only thing constant in life is change — Francois de la Rochefoucauld

We would rather speak badly of ourselves than not talk about ourselves at all. — Francois de la Rochefoucauld

Those who are incapable of committing great crimes do not readily suspect them in others. — Francois de la Rochefoucauld

It's easier to be wise for others than for ourselves. — Francois de la Rochefoucauld

Chance corrects us of many faults that reason would not know how to correct. — Francois de la Rochefoucauld

Gracefulness is to the body what understanding is to the mind. — Francois de la Rochefoucauld

Hypocrisy is the homage that vice pays to virtue. — Francois de la Rochefoucauld

Weak people cannot be sincere. — Francois de la Rochefoucauld

The only thing that should surprise us is that there are still some things that can surprise us. — Francois de la Rochefoucauld

Perfect Valor is to do, without a witness, all that we could do before the whole world. — Francois de la Rochefoucauld

To achieve greatness one should live as if they will never die. — Francois de la Rochefoucauld

Not all those who know their minds know their hearts as well. — Francois de la Rochefoucauld

Cunning and treachery are the offspring of incapacity. — Francois de la Rochefoucauld

One forgives to the degree that one loves. — Francois de la Rochefoucauld

There is a kind of love, the excess of which forbids jealousy. — Francois de la Rochefoucauld

Whatever ignominy or disgrace we have incurred, it is almost always in our power to reestablish our reputation. — Francois de la Rochefoucauld

Too great refinement is false delicacy, and true delicacy is solid refinement. — Francois de la Rochefoucauld

It is no tragedy to do ungrateful people favors, but it is unbearable to be indebted to a scoundrel. — Francois de la Rochefoucauld

Humility is often only feigned submission which people use to render others submissive. It is a subterfuge of pride which lowers itself in order to rise. — Francois de la Rochefoucauld

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. — Francois de la Rochefoucauld

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 Rochefoucauld

No man is clever enough to know all the evil he does. — Francois de la Rochefoucauld

It is sometimes necessary to play the fool to avoid being deceived by cunning men. — Francois de la Rochefoucauld

If we are to judge of love by its consequences, it more nearly resembles hatred than friendship. — Francois de la Rochefoucauld

If we did not flatter ourselves, the flattery of others could never harm us. — Francois de la Rochefoucauld

It is with true love as it is with ghosts; everyone talks about it, but few have seen it. — Francois de la Rochefoucauld

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. — Francois de la Rochefoucauld

To know how to hide one's ability is great skill. — Francois de la Rochefoucauld

The violence we do to ourselves in order to remain faithful to the one we love is hardly better than an act of infidelity. — Francois de la Rochefoucauld

Hope and fear are inseparable. — Francois de la Rochefoucauld

There is hardly a man clever enough to recognize the full extent of the evil he does. — Francois de la Rochefoucauld

Though men are apt to flatter and exalt themselves with their great achievements, yet these are, in truth, very often owing not so much to design as chance. — Francois de la Rochefoucauld

We may give advice, but not the sense to use it. — Francois de la Rochefoucauld

Mediocre minds usually dismiss anything which reaches beyond their own understanding. — Francois de la Rochefoucauld

When a man must force himself to be faithful in his love, this is hardly better than unfaithfulness. — Francois de la Rochefoucauld

As one grows older, one becomes wiser and more foolish. — Francois de la Rochefoucauld

There is no disguise which can hide love for long where it exists, or simulate it where it does not. — Francois de la Rochefoucauld

We are so accustomed to disguise ourselves to others that in the end we become disguised to ourselves. — Francois de la Rochefoucauld

The moderation of people in prosperity is the effect of a smooth and composed temper, owing to the calm of their good fortune. — Francois de la Rochefoucauld

The height of cleverness is being able to conceal it. — Francois de la Rochefoucauld

Passion makes idiots of the cleverest men, and makes the biggest idiots clever. — Francois de la Rochefoucauld

We always love those who admire us, but we do not always love those whom we admire. — Francois de la Rochefoucauld

Some beautiful things are more impressive when left imperfect than when too highly finished. — Francois de la Rochefoucauld

People always complain about their memories, never about their minds. — Francois de la Rochefoucauld

Men give away nothing so liberally as their advice. — Francois de la Rochefoucauld

Politeness is a desire to be treated politely, and to be esteemed polite oneself. — Francois de la Rochefoucauld

It is from a weakness and smallness of mind that men are opinionated; and we are very loath to believe what we are not able to comprehend. — Francois de la Rochefoucauld

What men have called friendship is only a social arrangement, a mutual adjustment of interests, an interchange of services given and received; it is, in sum, simply a business from which those involved propose to derive a steady profit for their own self-love. — Francois de la Rochefoucauld

Love can no more continue without a constant motion than fire can; and when once you take hope and fear away, you take from it its very life and being. — Francois de la Rochefoucauld

Listening well and answering well is one of the greatest perfections that can be obtained in conversation. — Francois de la Rochefoucauld

It is easier to be wise for others than for ourselves. — Francois de la Rochefoucauld

Jealousy contains more of self-love than of love. — Francois de la Rochefoucauld

What makes lovers never tire of one another is that they talk always about themselves. — Francois de la Rochefoucauld

Time's chariot-wheels make their carriage-road in the fairest face. — Francois de la Rochefoucauld

Conceit causes more conversation than wit. — Francois de la Rochefoucauld

Self-interest makes some people blind, and others sharp-sighted. — Francois de la Rochefoucauld

Folly pursues us at all periods of our lives. If someone seems wise it is only because his follies are proportionate to his age and fortune. — 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

We are more often treacherous, through weakness than through calculation. — Francois de la Rochefoucauld

Humility is often a false front we employ to gain power over others. — Francois de la Rochefoucauld

It is easier to appear worthy of a position one does not hold, than of the office which one fills. — Francois de la Rochefoucauld

Gallantry of mind consists in saying flattering things in an agreeable manner. — Francois de la Rochefoucauld

We seldom find people ungrateful so long as it is thought we can serve them. — Francois de la Rochefoucauld

If we have not peace within ourselves, it is in vain to seek it from outward sources. — Francois de la Rochefoucauld

We can never be certain of our courage until we have faced danger. — Francois de la Rochefoucauld

We all have enough strength to endure the misfortunes of others. — Francois de la Rochefoucauld

Men often pass from love to ambition, but they seldom come back again from ambition to love. — Francois de la Rochefoucauld

Taste may change, but inclination never. — Francois de la Rochefoucauld

Perfect behavior is born of complete indifference. — Francois de la Rochefoucauld

Idiots and lunatics see only their own wit. — Francois de la Rochefoucauld

In jealousy there is more of self-love than love. — Francois de la Rochefoucauld

The more one loves a mistress, the more one is ready to hate her. — Francois de la Rochefoucauld

Life Lessons by Francois de la Rochefoucauld

1. Life is full of irony, and it is important to maintain perspective and recognize that our successes and failures are often intertwined. Francois de la Rochefoucauld reminds us that we need to be humble and accept that our actions can have unintended consequences.
2. We should strive to be our best selves, but also be mindful that perfection is impossible and that we should not be too hard on ourselves. La Rochefoucauld's wisdom teaches us to be aware of our flaws and to take responsibility for our mistakes.
3. We should live with integrity and treat others with kindness and respect. La Rochefoucauld's words remind us that our actions have