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
It is often merely for an excuse that we say things are impossible.
Gratitude is merely the secret hope of further favors.
The reason why lovers and their mistresses never tire of being together is that they are always talking of themselves. [Fr., Ce qui fait que amants et les maitresses ne s'ennuient point d'etre ensemble; c'est qu'ils parlent toujours d'eux memes.]
There are some who never would have loved if they never had heard it spoken of.
In the presence of some people we inevitably depart From ourselves: we are inaccurate, we say things we do not feel, And talk nonsense. When we get home we are conscious that we Have made fools of ourselves. Never go near these people.
Good advice is something a man gives when he is too old to set a bad example.
The height of cleverness is to be able to conceal it.
Our temper sets a price upon every gift that we receive from fortune.
It is easier to be wise for others than for ourselves.
Self-interest makes some people blind, and others sharp-sighted.
Taste may change, but inclination never.
Idiots and lunatics see only their own wit.
Absence diminishes mediocre passions and increases great ones, as the wind extinguishes candles and fans fires.
The secret of pleasing in conversation is not to explain too much everything; to say them half and leave a little for divination is a mark of the good opinion we have of others, and nothing flatters their self-love more.