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
Moderation is represented as a virtue in order to restrain the ambition of great men, and to console those of a meaner condition in their lesser merit and fortune.
Eloquence resides as much in the tone of voice, in the eyes, and in the expression of the face, as in the choice of words.
There are some people upon whom their very faults and failings sit gracefully; and there are others whose very excellencies and accomplishments do not become them.
The esteem of good men is the reward of our worth, but the reputation of the world in general is the gift of our fate.
Silence is the best security to the man who distrusts himself.
The health of the soul is something we can be no more sure of than that of the body; and though a man may seem far from the passions, yet he is in as much danger of falling into them as one in a perfect state of health of having a fit of sickness.
A man's wits are better employed in bearing up under the misfortunes that lie upon him at present than in foreseeing those that may come upon him hereafter.
Every one complains of a poor memory, no one of a weak judgment.
Sincerity is a certain openness of heart. It is to be found in very few, and what we commonly look upon to be so is only a cunningsort of dissimulation, to insinuate ourselves into the confidence of others.
It is easier to rule others than to keep from being ruled oneself.
We are never either so fortunate or so misfortunate as we imagine.
Some men are so full of themselves that when they fall in love, they amuse themselves rather with their own passion than with theperson they love.
Lovers, when they are no longer in love, find it very hard to break up.
Love is one and the same in the original; but there are a thousand different copies of it.