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
He who lives without folly isn't so wise as he thinks.
When our hatred is violent, it sinks us even beneath those we hate.
Many people despise wealth, but few know how to give it away.
One cannot answer for his courage when he has never been in danger.
One forgives to the degree that one loves.
The only thing constant in life is change
True love is like ghosts, which everyone talks about and few have seen.
No persons are more frequently wrong, than those who will not admit they are wrong.
Luxury and excessive refinement are sure forerunners of the decadence of states, because when all individuals seek their own interests they neglect the public weal.
How can we be answerable for what we shall want in the future, since we have no clear idea of what we want now?
We arrive at the various stages of life quite as novices.
How deceitful hope may be, yet she carries us on pleasantly to the end of life.
One can no more look steadily at death than at the sun.
Our enemies' opinion of us comes closer to the truth than our own.