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
Narrowness of mind is often the cause of obstinacy; we do not easily believe beyond what we see.
There are good marriages, but there are no delightful ones.
The wind which snuffs the candle fans the fire.
Idleness is more an infirmity of the mind than of the body.
We are lazier in our minds than in our bodies.
Humility is the altar upon which God wishes that we should offer Him His sacrifices.
Hope is the last thing that dies in man.
It is the prerogative of great men only to have great defects.
Familiarity is a suspension of almost all the laws of civility, which libertinism has introduced into society under the notion of ease.
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.
Reason alone is insufficient to make us enthusiastic in any matter.
People would not long remain in social life if they were not the dupes of each other.
It is a species of coquetry to make a parade of never practising it.
Too great refinement is false delicacy, and true delicacy is solid refinement.