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Perfect courage is to do without witnesses what one would be capable of doing with the world looking on.
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
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Perfect
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Without
Witnesses
Would
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World
Witness
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Courage
More quotes by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Great men should not have great faults.
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Moderation resembles temperance. We are not so unwilling to eat more, as afraid of doing ourselves harm by it.
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Old people are fond of giving good advice it consoles them for no longer being capable of setting a bad example.
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Happy people rarely correct their faults they consider themselves vindicated, since fortune endorses their evil ways.
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We should not judge a man's merits by his great qualities, but by the use he makes of them.
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Praise is a more ingenious, concealed, and subtle kind of flattery, that satisfies both the giver and the receiver, though by verydifferent ways. The one accepts it as a reward due to his merit the other gives it that he may be looked upon as a just and discerning person.
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Our hopes, often though they deceive us, lead us pleasantly along the path of life.
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It is as common for tastes to change as it is uncommon for traits of character.
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Innocence does not find near so much protection as guilt.
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Pity is a sense of our own misfortunes in those of another man it is a sort of foresight of the disasters which may befall ourselves. We assist others,, in order that they may assist us on like occasions so that the services we offer to the unfortunate are in reality so many anticipated kindnesses to ourselves.
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Our aversion to lying is commonly a secret ambition to make what we say considerable, and have every word received with a religious respect.
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A man seldom finds people unthankful, as long as he remains in a condition of benefiting them further.
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The reason why most women have so little sense of friendship is that this is but a cold and flat passion to those that have felt that of love.
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He that fancies such a sufficiency in himself that he can live without all the world is greatly mistaken but he that imagines himself so necessary that other people cannot live without him is a great deal more mistaken.
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Affected simplicity is a subtle imposture.
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Some people displease with merit, and others' very faults and defects are pleasing.
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We sometimes think that we hate flattery, but we only hate the manner in which it is done. [Fr., On croit quelquefoir hair la flatterie maid on ne hait que a maniere de flatter.]
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Indolence, languid as it is, often masters both passions and virtues.
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To be a great man it is necessary to know how to profit by the whole of our good fortune.
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Love has its name borrowed by a great number of dealings and affairs that are attributed to it--in which it has no greater part than the Doge in what is done at Venice.
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