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
The gallantry of the mind consists in agreeable flattery.
A fool has not material enough to be good. [Fr., Un sot n'a pas assez d'etoffe pour etre bon.]
He who lives without committing any folly is not so wise as he thinks. [Fr., Qui vit sans folie n'est pas si sage qu'il croit.]
There are certain people fated to be fools; they not only commit follies by choice, but are even constrained to do so by fortune.
We sometimes think that we hate flattery, but we only hate the manner in which it is done. [Fr., On croit quelquefoir hair la flatterie; maid on ne hait que a maniere de flatter.]
If we never flattered ourselves we should have but scant pleasure.
Flattery is false money, which would not be current were it not for our vanity.
It is more difficult for a man to be faithful to his mistress when he is favored than when he is ill treated by her.
Fancy sets the value on the gifts of fortune.
It is far better to be deceived than undeceived by those whom we tenderly love.
It is not expedient or wise to examine our friends too closely; few persons are raised in our esteem by a close examination.
There are follies as catching as contagious disorders.
Nothing is so contagious as example; never was there any considerable good or ill done that does not produce its like. We imitate good actions through emulation, and had ones through a malignity in our nature, which shame conceals, and example sets at liberty.
Esteem never makes ingrates.