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
Nothing is so contagious as example; and we never do any great good or evil which does not produce its like.
There is a kind of elevation which does not depend on fortune; it is a certain air which distinguishes us, and seems to destine us for great things; it is a price which we imperceptibly set upon ourselves.
It is easier to appear worthy of a position one does not hold, than of the office which one fills.
Ridicule dishonors a man more than dishonor does.
Truth does not do as much good in the world as its imitations do harm.
Truth does less good in the world than its appearances do harm.
The tranquility or agitation of our temper does not depend so much on the big things which happen to us in life, as on the pleasant or unpleasant arrangements of the little things which happen daily.
Fortune never appears so blind as to those to whom she does no good.
One thing which makes us find so few people who appear reasonable and agreeable in conversation is, that there is scarcely any one who does not think more of what he is about to say than of answering precisely what is said to him.
If vanity does not entirely overthrow the virtues, at least it makes them all totter.
To establish oneself in the world, one does all one can to seem established there already.
Imagination does not enable us to invent as many different contradictions as there are by nature in every heart.
We say little, when vanity does not make us speak.
Innocence does not find near so much protection as guilt.