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
What renders other people's vanity insufferable is that it wounds our own.
People are more slanderous from vanity than from malice.
He is a truly virtuous man who wishes always to be open to the observation of honest men.
It is most difficult to speak when we are ashamed of being silent.
There is at least as much eloquence in the voice, eyes, and air of a speaker as in his choice of words.
Eloquence: saying the proper thing and stopping.
Philosophy triumphs easily over past evils and future evils, but present evils triumph over it.
To understand matters rightly we should understand their details; and as that knowledge is almost infinite, our knowledge is always superficial and imperfect.
The qualities we have, make us so ridiculous as those which we affect.
Avarice often produces opposite results: there are an infinite number of persons who sacrifice their property to doubtful and distant expectations; others mistake great future advantages for small present interests.
When fortune surprises us by giving us some great office without having gradually led us to expect it, or without having raised our hopes, it is well nigh impossible to occupy it well, and to appear worthy to fill it.
There may be talent without position, but there is no position without some kind of talent.
The happiness and unhappiness of men depends as much on their ethics as on fortune.
We torment ourselves rather to make it appear that we are happy than to become so.