Francois de La Rochefoucauld

A great many men's gratitude is nothing but a secret desire to hook in more valuable kindnesses hereafter.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld

A man is sometimes as different from himself as he is from others.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld

A man's worth has its season, like fruit.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld

A refusal of praise is a desire to be praised twice.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld

A true friend is the greatest of all blessings, and that which we take the least care of all to acquire.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld

A wise man thinks it more advantageous not to join the battle than to win.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld

A work can become modern only if it is first postmodern. Postmodernism thus understood is not modernism at its end but in the nascent state, and this state is constant.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld

Absence diminishes mediocre passions and increases great ones, as the wind extinguishes candles and fans fires.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld

All the passions make us commit faults; love makes us commit the most ridiculous ones.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld

As great minds have the faculty of saying a great deal in a few words, so lesser minds have a talent of talking much, and saying nothing.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld

As it is the characteristic of great wits to say much in few words, so small wits seem to have the gift of speaking much and saying nothing.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld

As one grows older, one becomes wiser and more foolish.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld

Before we set our hearts too much upon anything, let us examine how happy they are, who already possess it.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld

Being a blockhead is sometimes the best security against being cheated by a man of wit.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld

Conceit causes more conversation than wit.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld

Confidence contributes more to conversation than wit.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld

Decency is the least of all laws, but yet it is the law which is most strictly observed.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld

Every one speaks well of his own heart, but no one dares speak well of his own mind.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld

Everyone complains of his memory, and nobody complains of his judgment.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld

Few people have the wisdom to prefer the criticism that would do them good, to the praise that deceives them.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld

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