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
The only thing that should surprise us is that there are still some things that can surprise us.
Gracefulness is to the body what understanding is to the mind.
The contempt of riches in philosophers was only a hidden desire to avenge their merit upon the injustice of fortune, by despising the very goods of which fortune had deprived them; it was a secret to guard themselves against the degradation of poverty, it was a back way by which to arrive at that distinction which they could not gain by riches.
The only thing constant in life is change
We can never be certain of our courage until we have faced danger....
There is no disguise which can hide love for long where it exists, or simulate it where it does not.
The hate of favourites is only a love of favour. The envy of NOT possessing it, consoles and softens its regrets by the contempt it evinces for those who possess it, and we refuse them our homage, not being able to detract from them what attracts that of the rest of the world.
There is no better proof of a man's being truly good than his desiring to be constantly under the observation of good men.
When our vices leave us, we like to imagine it is we who are leaving them.
Marriage is the only war in which you sleep with the enemy.
When great men permit themselves to be cast down by the continuance of misfortune, they show us that they were only sustained by ambition, and not by their mind; so that PLUS a great vanity, heroes are made like other men.
To achieve greatness one should live as if they will never die.
We would frequently be ashamed of our good deeds if people saw all of the motives that produced them.
To eat is a necessity, but to eat intelligently is an art.