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
Not all those who know their minds know their hearts as well.
We should often feel ashamed of our best actions if the world could see all the motives which produced them.
We only acknowledge small faults in order to make it appear that we are free from great ones.
Most of our faults are more pardonable than the means we use to conceal them.
When we are unable to find tranquility within ourselves, it is useless to seek it elsewhere.
Good advice is something a man gives when he is too old to set a bad example.
It is easier to be wise for others than for ourselves.
There is no disguise which can hide love for long where it exists, or simulate it where it does not.
We would frequently be ashamed of our good deeds if people saw all of the motives that produced them.
In growing old, we become more foolish - and more wise.
It is difficult to define love; all we can say is, that in the soul it is a desire to rule, in the mind it is a sympathy, and in the body it is a hidden and delicate wish to possess what we love-Plus many mysteries.
If one judges love by the majority of its effects, it is more like hatred than like friendship.
Perfect valour consists in doing without witnesses that which we would be capable of doing before everyone.
Perfect courage is to do without witnesses what one would be capable of doing with the world looking on.