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
A gentleman may love like a lunatic, but not like a beast.
There are no accidents so unlucky but the prudent may draw some advantage from them.
We may seem great in an employment below our worth, but we very often look little in one that is too big for us.
Taste may change, but inclination never.
However we may conceal our passions under the veil ... there is always some place where they peep out.
Those who have the most cunning affect all their lives to condemn cunning; that they may make use of it on some great occasion, and to some great end.
Men may boast of their great actions; but they are more often the effects of chance than of design.
There is no accident so unfortunate but wise men will make some advantage of it, nor any so entirely fortunate but fools may turn it to their own prejudice.
However evil men may be they dare not be openly hostile to virtue, and so when they want to attack it they pretend to find it spurious , or impute crimes to it.
However much we may distrust men's sincerity, we always believe they speak to us more sincerely than to others.
Whatever pretext we may give for our affections, often it is only interest and vanity which cause them.
No accidents are so unlucky [bad] but that the wise may draw some advantage [good] from them...
How deceitful hope may be, yet she carries us on pleasantly to the end of life.
It is much better to learn to deal with the ills we have now than to speculate on those that may befall us.