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
Neither the sun nor death can be looked at with a steady eye.
It is easier to know men in general, than men in particular.
In the human heart new passions are forever being born; the overthrow of one almost always means the rise of another.
If we resist our passions, it is more due to their weakness than our strength.
Great souls are not those who have fewer passions and more virtues than others, but only those who have greater designs.
Few things are impracticable in themselves; and it is for want of application, rather than of means, that men fail to succeed.
Whatever good things people say of us, they tell us nothing new.
What keeps us from abandoning ourselves entirely to one vice, often, is the fact that we have several.
We seldom praise anyone in good earnest, except such as admire us.
We only confess our little faults to persuade people that we have no big ones.
We do not despise all those who have vices, but we do despise those that have no virtue.
Usually we praise only to be praised.
To know how to hide one's ability is great skill.
Timidity is a fault for which it is dangerous to reprove persons whom we wish to correct of it.