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
Passion often renders the most clever man a fool, and sometimes renders the most foolish man clever.
A clever man reaps some benefit from the worst catastrophe, and a fool can turn even good luck to his disadvantage.
There are but very few men clever enough to know all the mischief they do.
The most clever and polite are content with only seeming attentive while we perceive in their mind and eyes that at the very time they are wandering from what is said and desire to return to what they want to say.
No man is clever enough to know all the evil he does.
Too great cleverness is but deceptive delicacy, true delicacy is the most substantial cleverness.
Passion makes idiots of the cleverest men, and makes the biggest idiots clever.
There are no accidents so unlucky from which clever people are not able to reap some advantage, and none so lucky that the foolish are not able to turn them to their own disadvantage.
There is scarcely any man sufficiently clever to appreciate all the evil he does.
The desire of appearing clever often prevents our becoming so.
There are no circumstances, however unfortunate, that clever people do not extract some advantage from.
A clever man should handle his interests so that each will fall in suitable order of their value.
It's easier to know people in general than one person in particular
The desire to seem clever often keeps us from being so.