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
All our qualities, whether good or bad, are unstable and ambiguous, and almost all are at the mery of chance.
Luxury and excessive refinement are sure forerunners of the decadence of states, because when all individuals seek their own interests they neglect the public weal.
How can we be answerable for what we shall want in the future, since we have no clear idea of what we want now?
As the great ones of this world are unable to bestow health of body or peace of mind, we always pay too high a price for any good they can do.
Sobriety is concern for one's health - or limited capacity.
Spiritual health is no more stable than bodily; and though we may seem unaffected by the passions we are just as liable to be carried away by them as to fall ill when in good health.
Strength and weakness of mind are misnomers; they are really nothing but the good or bad health of our bodily organs.
The sicknesses of the soul have their ups and downs like those of the body; what we take to be a cure is most often merely a respite or change of disease.
In every walk of life each man puts on a personality and outward appearance so as to look what he wants to be thought; in fact you might say that society is entirely made up of assumed personalities.
No fools are so difficult to manage as those with some brains.
The violence we do to ourselves in order to remain faithful to the one we love is hardly better than an act of infidelity.
We should scarcely desire things ardently if we were perfectly acquainted with what we desire.
It takes more strength of character to withstand good fortune than bad.
Coquetry is the essential characteristic, and the prevalent humor of women; but they do not all practice it, because the coquetry of some is restrained by fear or by reason.