Share
×
Inspirational Quotes
Authors
Professions
Topics
Tags
Quote
We are very far from always knowing our own wishes.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Share
Change background
T
T
T
Change font
Original
TAGS & TOPICS
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
Wishes
Knowing
Wish
Always
More quotes by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
A man often imagines that he acts, when he is acted upon.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
The evil that we do does not attract to us so much persecution and hatred as our good qualities.
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
What we take for virtue is often but an assemblage of various ambitions and activities that chance, or our own astuteness, have arranged in a certain manner and it is not always out of courage or purity that men are brave, and women chaste.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
The judgments our enemies make about us come nearer to the truth than those we make about ourselves.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
The shame that arises from praise which we do not deserve often makes us do things we should otherwise never have attempted.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Whatever pretext we may give for our affections, often it is only interest and vanity which cause them.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Self-interest speaks all manner of tongues and plays all manner of parts, even that of disinterestedness.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
The better part of one's life consists of his friendships. ABRAHAM LINCOLN, letter to Joseph Gillespie, July 13, 1849 Friendship is insipid to those who have experienced love.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
We should not judge a man's merits by his great qualities, but by the use he makes of them.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
A man's wits are better employed in bearing up under the misfortunes that lie upon him at present than in foreseeing those that may come upon him hereafter.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Were we faultless, we would not derive such satisfaction from remarking the faults of others.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
That conduct often seems ridiculous the secret reasons of which are wise and solid.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
None deserve praise for being good who have not the spirit to be bad: goodness, for the most part, is nothing but indolence or weakness of will.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
To eat is a necessity, but to eat intelligently is an art.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
It is as common for tastes to change as it is uncommon for traits of character.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
The force we use on ourselves, to prevent ourselves from loving, is often more cruel than the severest treatment at the hands of one loved.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
In the human heart there is a ceaseless birth of passions, so that the destruction of one is almost always the establishment of another.
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
Nothing is rarer than true good nature they who are reputed to have it are generally only pliant or weak.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
