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
Few men know all the ill they do.
Not to love is in love an infallible means of being loved.
A man is perhaps ungrateful, but often less chargeable with ingratitude than his benefactor is.
Love is the smallest part of gallantry.
Not all who discharge their debts of gratitude should flatter themselves that they are grateful.
Sometimes we meet a fool with wit, never one with discretion.
Madmen and fools see everything through the medium of humor.
We are deceived if we think that mind and judgment are two different matters: judgment is but the extent of the light of the mind. This light penetrates to the bottom of matters; it remarks all that can be remarked, and perceives what appears imperceptible. Therefore we must agree that it is the extent of the light in the mind that produces all the effects which we attribute to judgment.
Nothing is so catching as example.
Few people know death, we only endure it, usually from determination, and even from stupidity and custom; and most men only die because they know not how to prevent dying.
Ordinary men commonly condemn what is beyond them.
Everyone praises his heart, none dare praise their understanding.
The heat of youth is not more opposed to safety than the coldness of age.
The dullness of certain people is sometimes a sufficient security against the attack of an artful man.