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
We come altogether fresh and raw into the several stages of life, and often find ourselves without experience, despite our years.
If we have not peace within ourselves, it is in vain to seek it from outward sources.
We are very far from always knowing our own wishes.
The mind cannot long play the heart's role.
Some accidents there are in life that a little folly is necessary to help us out of.
In the misfortunes of our best friends we always find something not altogether displeasing to us.
If we did not flatter ourselves, the flattery of others could never harm us.
Hope, deceiving as it is, serves at least to lead us to the end of our lives by an agreeable route.
Some counterfeits reproduce so very well the truth that it would be a flaw of judgment not to be deceived by them.
The defects and faults of the mind are like wounds in the body; after all imaginable care has been taken to heal them up, still there will be a scar left behind, and they are in continual danger of breaking the skin and bursting out again.
Old people love to give good advice; it compensates them for their inability to set a bad example.
We get so much in the habit of wearing disguises before others that we finally appear disguised before ourselves.
They that apply themselves to trifling matters commonly become incapable of great ones.
However glorious an action in itself, it ought not to pass for great if it be not the effect of wisdom and intention.