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
Old men are fond of giving good advice to console themselves for their inability to give bad examples.
Men often pass from love to ambition, but they seldom come back again from ambition to love.
If a man doesn't find ease in himself, 'tis in vain to seek it elsewhere.
However wicked men may be, they do not dare openly to appear the enemies of virtue, and when they desire to persecute her they either pretend to believe her false or attribute crimes to her.
Passion often renders the most clever man a fool, and sometimes renders the most foolish man clever.
A man cannot please long who has only one kind of wit.
Virtue is the habit of acting according to wisdom. GOTTFRIED WILHELM LEIBNIZ, "Felicity", Leibniz: Political Writings Virtue is harder to be got than knowledge of the world; and, if lost in a young man, is seldom recovered. JOHN LOCKE, Some Thoughts Concerning Education However wicked men may be, they do not dare openly to appear the enemies of virtue, and when they desire to persecute her they either pretend to believe her false or attribute crimes to her.
Old men delight in giving good advice as a consolation for the fact that they can no longer set bad examples.
To be a great man it is necessary to know how to profit by the whole of our good fortune.
Men and things have each their proper perspective; to judge rightly of some it is necessary to see them near, of others we can never judge rightly but at a distance.
A man for whom accident discovers sense, is not a rational being. A man only is so who understands, who distinguishes, who tests it.
A clever man reaps some benefit from the worst catastrophe, and a fool can turn even good luck to his disadvantage.
A man's happiness or unhappiness depends as much on his temperament as on his destiny.
Hope is the last thing that dies in man; and though it be exceedingly deceitful, yet it is of this good use to us, that while we are traveling through life it conducts us in an easier and more pleasant way to our journey's end.