Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
François VI, Duc de La Rochefoucauld, Prince de Marcillacla ʁɔʃfuˈko]; 15 September 1613 – 17 March 1680) was a noted French author of maxims and memoirs. It is said that his world-view was clear-eyed and urbane, and that he neither condemned human conduct nor sentimentally celebrated it. Born in Paris on the Rue des Petits Champs, at a time when the royal court was vacillating between aiding the nobility and threatening it, he was considered an exemplar of the accomplished 17th-century...
NationalityFrench
ProfessionWriter
Date of Birth15 September 1613
CountryFrance
Jealousy lives upon doubts. It becomes madness or ceases entirely as soon as we pass from doubt to certainty.
Hypocrisy is the homage vice pays to virtue.
Passion makes idiots of the cleverest men, and makes the biggest idiots clever.
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.
We seldom find people ungrateful so long as it is thought we can serve them.
If one acts rightly and honestly, it is difficult to decide whether it is the effect of integrity or skill.
Jealousy is bred in doubts. When those doubts change into certainties, then the passion either ceases or turns absolute madness.
There is only one kind of love, but there are a thousand imitations.
As great minds have the faculty of saying a great deal in a few words, so lesser minds have a talent of talking much, and saying nothing.
The smallest fault of women who give themselves up to love is to love.
One forgives to the degree that one loves.
We are so accustomed to disguise ourselves to others that in the end we become disguised to ourselves.
A true friend is the greatest of all blessings, and that which we take the least care of all to acquire.
We sometimes differ more widely from ourselves than we do from others.