François de La Rochefoucauld quotes - page 18

We seldom find people ungrateful so long as we are in a condition to render them service. (François de La Rochefoucauld)
We would rather see those to whom we do good, than those who do good to us. View quote
François de La Rochefoucauld
We never desire strongly, what we desire rationally. View quote
François de La Rochefoucauld
The greatest miracle of love is the cure of coquetry. View quote
François de La Rochefoucauld
Hope and fear are inseparable. View quote
François de La Rochefoucauld
The only good copies are those which make us see the absurdity of bad originals. View quote
François de La Rochefoucauld
Behind many acts that are thought ridiculous there lie wise and weighty motives. View quote
François de La Rochefoucauld
Whatever discoveries we may have made in the regions of self-love, there still remain many unknown lands. View quote
François de La Rochefoucauld
It may be said that the vices await us in the journey of life like hosts with whom we must successively lodge; and I doubt whether experience would make us avoid them if we were to travel the same road a second time. View quote
François 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. View quote
François de La Rochefoucauld
Our enemies come nearer the truth in the opinions they form of us than we do in our opinion of ourselves. (François de La Rochefoucauld)
Of all our faults, the one that we excuse most easily is idleness. View quote
François de La Rochefoucauld
Jealousy is in a manner just and reasonable, as it tends to preserve a good which belongs, or which we believe belongs to us, on the other hand envy is a fury which cannot endure the happiness of others. View quote
François de La Rochefoucauld
Few persons have sufficient wisdom to prefer censure, which is useful, to praise which deceives them. View quote
François de La Rochefoucauld
What renders us so changeable in our friendship is, that it is difficult to know the qualities of the soul, but easy to know those of the mind. View quote
François de La Rochefoucauld
Nothing is less sincere than our mode of asking and giving advice. He who asks seems to have a deference for the opinion of his friend, while he only aims to get approval of his own and make his friend responsible for his action. And he who gives advice repays the confidence supposed to be placed in him by a seemingly disinterested zeal, while he seldom means anything by his advice but his own interest or reputation. View quote
François de La Rochefoucauld
He loves to imitate. We often imitate the same person without perceiving it, and we neglect our own good qualities for the good qualities of others, which generally do not suit us. View quote
François de La Rochefoucauld
Some have a species of instinct (the source of which they are ignorant of), and decide all questions that come before them by its aid, and always decide rightly. These follow their taste more than their intelligence, because they do not permit their temper and self-love to prevail over their natural discernment. All they do is in harmony, all is in the same spirit. This harmony makes them decide correctly on matters, and form a correct estimate of their value. View quote
François de La Rochefoucauld
This is the reason that the majority of children please. It is because they are wrapt up in the air and manner nature has given them, and are ignorant of any other. View quote
François de La Rochefoucauld
Some condemnations praise; some praise damns. View quote
François de La Rochefoucauld
Fortunate people seldom mend their ways, for when good luck crowns their misdeeds with success they think it is because they are right. (François de La Rochefoucauld)
I have always been an admirer. I regard the gift of admiration as indispensable if one is to amount to something; I don't know where I would be without it. View quote
François de La Rochefoucauld
It takes nearly as much ability to know how to profit by good advice as to know how to act for one's self. View quote
François de La Rochefoucauld
What makes us like new acquaintances is not so much any weariness of our old ones, or the pleasure of change, as disgust at not being sufficiently admired by those who know us too well, and the hope of being more so by those who do not know so much of us. View quote
François de La Rochefoucauld
Good taste come more from the judgment than from the mind. View quote
François de La Rochefoucauld