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It is a great act of cleverness to be able to conceal one's being clever.

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
Cleverness
Conceal
Clever
Able
Great

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We do not lack strength so much as the will to use it and very often our imagining that things are impossible is nothing but an excuse of our own contriving, to reconcile ourselves to our own idleness.
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More men are guilty of treason through weakness than any studied design to betray.
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Propriety is the least of all laws, and the most observed.
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Those great and glorious actions that dazzle our eyes with their luster are represented by statesmen as the result of great wisdomand excellent design whereas, in truth, they are commonly the effects of the humors and passions.
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Fortune cures us of many faults that reason could not.
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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.
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There is only one kind of love, but there are a thousand imitations.
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Vices are ingredients of virtues just as poisons are ingredients of remedies. Prudence mixes and tempers them and uses them effectively against life's ills.
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Almost everyone takes pleasure in repaying trifling obligations, very many feel gratitude for those that are moderate but there is scarcely anyone who is not ungrateful for those that are weighty.
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Bravery in simple soldiers is a dangerous trade, to which they have bound themselves to get their livelihood.
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Avarice misapprehends itself almost always. There is no passion which more often will miss its aim, nor upon which the present has so much influence to the prejudice of the future.
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Sobriety is love of health, or inability to eat much.
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The passions possess a certain injustice and self interest which makes it dangerous to follow them, and in reality we should distrust them even when they appear most trustworthy.
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Of all the violent passions, the one that becomes a woman best is love.
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A man does not please long when he has only species of wit.
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A readiness to believe ill of others, before we have duly examined it, is the effect of laziness and pride. We are eager to find aculprit, and loath to give ourselves the trouble of examining the crime.
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As one grows older, one becomes wiser and more foolish.
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What makes false reckoning, as regards gratitude, is that the pride of the giver and the receiver cannot agree as to the value of the benefit.
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Wisdom is the mind what health is to the body.
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Second-rate minds usually condemn everything beyond their grasp.
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