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
Pride indemnifies itself and loses nothing even when it casts away vanity.
A fool has not stuff enough to make a good man.
Of all the violent passions, the one that becomes a woman best is love.
Men sometimes think they hate flattery, but they hate only the manner of flattering.
The largest ambition has the least appearance of ambition when it meets with an absolute impossibility in compassing its object.
We may say of agreeableness, as distinct from beauty, that it is a symmetry whose rules are unknown.
The clemency of Princes is often but policy to win the affections of the people.
That conduct often seems ridiculous the secret reasons of which are wise and solid.
To awaken a man who is deceived as to his own merit is to do him as bad a turn as that done to the Athenian madman who was happy in believing that all the ships touching at the port belonged to him.
Cunning and treachery proceed from want of capacity.
A well-trained mind has less difficulty in submitting to than in guiding an ill-trained mind.
Passions often produce their contraries: avarice sometimes leads to prodigality, and prodigality to avarice; we are often obstinate through weakness and daring through timidity.
The rust of business is sometimes polished off in a camp; but never in a court.
Friendship is insipid to those who have experienced love.