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
Being a blockhead is sometimes the best security against being cheated by a man of wit.
Weakness of character is the only defect which cannot be amended.
A great many men's gratitude is nothing but a secret desire to hook in more valuable kindnesses hereafter.
The reason why so few people are agreeable in conversation is that each is thinking more about what he intends to say than others are saying.
Repentance is not so much remorse for what we have done as the fear of the consequences.
Everyone complains of his memory, and nobody complains of his judgment.
When a man is in love, he doubts, very often, what he most firmly believes.
There are few virtuous women who are not bored with their trade.
The desire of talking of ourselves, and showing those faults we do not mind having seen, makes up a good part of our sincerity.
Men give away nothing so liberally as their advice.
If it were not for the company of fools, a witty man would often be greatly at a loss.
The happiness and misery of men depend no less on temper than fortune.
Innocence does not find near so much protection as guilt.
Why is it that our memory is good enough to retain the least triviality that happens to us, and yet not good enough to recollect how often we have told it to the same person?