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 are never so generous as when giving advice.
The man whom no one pleases is much more unhappy than the man who pleases no one.
History never embraces more than a small part of reality
It is easier to fall in love when you are out of it than to get out of it when you are in.
Without humility, we keep all our defects; and they are only crusted over by pride, which conceals them from others, and often from ourselves.
Most men, like plants, possess hidden qualities which chance discovers.
We are always bored by the very people by whom it is vital not to be bored.
We exaggerate the glory of some men in order to detract from that of others.
Some disguised deceits counterfeit truth so perfectly that not to be taken in by them would be an error of judgment.
Hope and fear are inseparable. There is no hope without fear, nor any fear without hope.
Commonplace minds usually condemn what is beyond the reach of their understanding.
A man is ridiculous less through the characteristics he has than through those he affects to have.
It is safer to do most men harm than to do them too much good.
The only thing that should astonish us is that anything can yet astonish us.