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Those who occupy their minds with small matters, generally become incapable of greatness.
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
Matter
Capability
Mind
Incapable
Generally
Matters
Greatness
Minds
Pettiness
Small
Triviality
Become
Occupy
More quotes by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
There is merit without rank, but there is no rank without some merit.
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One of the greatest and also the commonest of faults is for men to believe that, because they never hear their shortcomings spoken of, or read about them in cold print, others can have no knowledge of them. GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG, The Reflections of Lichtenberg We are often more agreeable through our faults than our good qualities.
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The passions are the only orators that always persuade: they are, as it were, a natural art, the rules of which are infallible and the simplest man with passion is more persuasive than the most eloquent without it.
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Some men are like ballads, that are in everyone's mouth a little while.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
A man's happiness or unhappiness depends as much on his temperament as on his destiny.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Those who are condemned to death affect sometimes a constancy and contempt for death which is only the fear of facing it so that one may say that this constancy and contempt are to their mind what the bandage is to their eyes.
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What is called liberality is often merely the vanity of giving.
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Fortune never appears so blind as to those to whom she does no good.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
On why I don't trust democracy without extremely powerful systems of accountability and recall What seems to be generosity is often only disguised ambition - which despises small interests to gain great ones.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
For the credit of virtue we must admit that the greatest misfortunes of men are those into which they fall through their crimes.
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
It is often laziness and timidity that keep us within our duty while virtue gets all the credit.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Sobriety is concern for one's health - or limited capacity.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
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.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
What men have called friendship is only a social arrangement, a mutual adjustment of interests, an interchange of services given and received it is, in sum, simply a business from which those involved propose to derive a steady profit for their own self-love.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
The rust of business is sometimes polished off in a camp but never in a court.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
We always love those who admire us, but we do not always love those whom we admire.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Sometimes accidents happen in life from which we have need of a little madness to extricate ourselves successfully
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
We often are consoled by our want of reason for misfortunes that reason could not have comforted.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
A man often imagines that he acts, when he is acted upon.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
