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
We judge so superficially of things, that common words and actions spoke and done in an agreeable manner, with some knowledge of what passes in the world, often succeed beyond the greatest ability.
We should often feel ashamed of our best actions if the world could see all the motives which produced them.
As the great ones of this world are unable to bestow health of body or peace of mind, we always pay too high a price for any good they can do.
Truth does not do as much good in the world as its imitations do harm.
Truth does less good in the world than its appearances do harm.
The world is full of pots jeering at kettles.
A man, in order to establish himself in the world, does everything he can to appear established there.
To establish oneself in the world, one does all one can to seem established there already.
Fortune and humor govern the world.
We should gain more by letting the world see what we are than by trying to seem what we are not.
To establish yourself in the world a person must do all they can to appear already established.
True bravery is shown by performing without witness what one might be capable of doing before all the world.
There is such a thing as a general revolution which changes the taste of men as it changes the fortunes of the world.
In all aspects of life, we take on a part and an appearance to seem to be what we wish to be--and thus the world is merely composed of actors.