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
There is real love just as there are real ghosts; every person speaks of it, few persons have seen it.
The passions possess a certain injustice and self interest which makes it dangerous to follow them, and in reality we should distrust them even when they appear most trustworthy.
Most women lament not the death of their lovers so much out of real affection for them, as because they would appear worthy of love.
Nothing is rarer than real goodness.
The height of ability consists in a thorough knowledge of the real value of things, and of the genius of the age in which we live.
It is only persons of firmness that can have real gentleness. Those who appear gentle are, in general, only a weak character, which easily changes into asperity.
The name and pretense of virtue is as serviceable to self-interest as are real vices.
Our virtues are often, in reality, no better than vices disguised.
It is almost always a fault of one who loves not to realize when he ceases to be loved.
The only real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes. The glory of great men should always be measured by the means they have used to acpuire it.
History never embraces more than a small part of reality
Some people are so extremely whiffling and inconsiderable that they are as far from any real faults as from substantial virtues.
Kings do with men as with pieces of money; they give them what value they please, and we are obliged to receive them at their current and not at their real value.
Pity is a sense of our own misfortunes in those of another man; it is a sort of foresight of the disasters which may befall ourselves. We assist others,, in order that they may assist us on like occasions; so that the services we offer to the unfortunate are in reality so many anticipated kindnesses to ourselves.