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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
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Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Age: 66 †
Born: 1613
Born: September 15
Died: 1680
Died: March 17
Memoirist
Military Personnel
Writer
Paris
France
François VI
Duc de La Rochefoucauld
Prince de Marcillac
François
Duc de La Rochefoucauld
Words
Lesser
Nothing
Faculty
Minds
Great
Deal
Much
Deals
Mind
Talent
Saying
Talking
More quotes by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
He is a truly virtuous man who wishes always to be open to the observation of honest men.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Some people are so extremely whiffling and inconsiderable that they are as far from any real faults as from substantial virtues.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Philosophy finds it an easy matter to vanquish past and future evils, but the present are commonly too hard for it.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Nothing is more contagious than example, and no man does any exceeding good or exceeding ill but it spawns new deeds of the same kind. The good we imitate through emulation, the ill through the malignity of our nature, which shame keeps locked up, but example sets free.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
As we grow older, we increase in folly--and in wisdom.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
There is an excess both in happiness and misery above our power of sensation.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Our actions seem to have their lucky and unlucky stars, to which a great part of that blame and that commendation is due which is given to the actions themselves.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
In friendship as well as love, ignorance very often contributes more to our happiness than knowledge.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
We are never either so fortunate or so misfortunate as we imagine.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
One kind of happiness is to know exactly at what point to be miserable.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
The person giving the advice returns the confidence placed in him with a disinterested eagerness... and he is usually guided only by his own interest or reputation.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
We often select envenomed praise which, by a reaction upon those we praise, shows faults we could not have shown by other means.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Though nature be ever so generous, yet can she not make a hero alone. Fortune must contribute her part too and till both concur, the work cannot be perfected.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
It is easier to deceive yourself, and to do so unperceived, than to deceive another.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
It is a species of coquetry to make a parade of never practising it.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Tis more dishonourable to distrust a friend than to be deceived by him.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Humility is often merely feigned submissiveness assumed in order to subject others, an artifice of pride which stoops to conquer, and although pride has a thousand ways of transforming itself it is never so well disguised and able to take people in as when masquerading as humility.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
The hate of favourites is only a love of favour. The envy of NOT possessing it, consoles and softens its regrets by the contempt it evinces for those who possess it, and we refuse them our homage, not being able to detract from them what attracts that of the rest of the world.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
No man deserves to be praised for his goodness, who has it not in his power to be wicked. Goodness without that power is generally nothing more than sloth, or an impotence of will.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
High fortune makes both our virtues and vices stand out as objects that are brought clearly to view by the light.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
