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As it is the characteristic of great wits to say much in few words, so small wits seem to have the gift of speaking 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
Wisdom
Wits
Small
Characteristic
Words
Wit
Seems
Characteristics
Nothing
Speaking
Great
Gift
Much
Seem
Saying

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Passion often renders the most clever man a fool, and sometimes renders the most foolish man clever.
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To listen closely and reply well is the highest perfection we are able to attain in the art of conversation.
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There are follies as catching as contagious disorders.
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We always get bored with those whom we bore.
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The applause we give those who are new to society often proceeds from a secret envying of those already established.
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Great names abase, instead of elevating, those who do not know how to bear them.
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It is often merely for an excuse that we say things are impossible.
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The esteem of good men is the reward of our worth, but the reputation of the world in general is the gift of our fate.
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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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A woman is faithful to her first lover for a long time - unless she happens to take a second.
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Sobriety is love of health, or inability to eat much.
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Propriety is the least of all laws, and the most observed.
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Second-rate minds usually condemn everything beyond their grasp.
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It is not expedient or wise to examine our friends too closely few persons are raised in our esteem by a close examination.
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There are few people who would not be ashamed of being loved when they love no longer.
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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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Envy is more irreconcilable than hatred.
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The judgments our enemies make about us come nearer to the truth than those we make about ourselves.
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