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
Gallantry of mind consists in saying flattering things in an agreeable manner.
Flattery is a base coin which is current only through our vanity.
Folly pursues us at all periods of our lives. If someone seems wise it is only because his follies are proportionate to his age and fortune.
It appears that nature has hid at the bottom of our hearts talents and abilities unknown to us. It is only the passions that have the power of bringing them to light, and sometimes give us views more true and more perfect than art could possibly do.
We give nothing so freely as advice.
What makes us so often discontented with those who transact business for us is that they almost always abandon the interest of their friends for the interest of the business, because they wish to have the honor of succeeding in that which they have undertaken.
The height of ability in the least able consists in knowing how to submit to the good leadership of others.
It is not always from valor or from chastity that men are brave, and women chaste.
Vanity, shame, and above all disposition, often make men brave and women chaste.
Politeness of mind consists in thinking chaste and refined thoughts.
Bodily labor alleviates the pains of the mind and from this arises the happiness of the poor
The shame that arises from praise which we do not deserve often makes us do things we should otherwise never have attempted.
To establish yourself in the world a person must do all they can to appear already established.
We think very few people sensible, except those who are of our opinion.