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 often boast that we are never bored; but yet we are so conceited that we do not perceive how often we bore others.
In love the deceit generally outstrips the distrust.
Were we perfectly acquainted with the object, we should never passionately desire it.
Those who are overreached by our cunning are far from appearing to us as ridiculous as we appear to ourselves when the cunning of others has overreached us.
The most sure method of subjecting yourself to be deceived is to consider yourself more cunning than others.
Cunning and treachery are the offspring of incapacity.
For the credit of virtue we must admit that the greatest misfortunes of men are those into which they fall through their crimes.
Women find it far more difficult to overcome their inclination to coquetry than to overcome their love.
All women seem by nature to be coquettes.
It is given to few persons to keep this secret well. Those who lay down rules too often break them, and the safest we are able to give is to listen much, to speak little, and to say nothing that that will ever give ground or regret.
Those only are despicable who fear to be despised.
None but the contemptible are apprehensive of contempt.
The constancy of the wise is only the art of keeping disquietude to one's self.
Whatever distrust we may have of the sincerity of those who converse with us, we always believe they will tell us more truth than they do to others.