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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
Much
Seem
Saying
Wisdom
Wits
Small
Characteristic
Words
Wit
Seems
Characteristics
Nothing
Speaking
Great
Gift

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Prudence and love are inconsistent in proportion as the last increases, the other decreases.
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We often are consoled by our want of reason for misfortunes that reason could not have comforted.
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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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It is often laziness and timidity that keep us within our duty while virtue gets all the credit.
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No fools are so difficult to manage as those with some brains.
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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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A fashionable woman is always in love - with herself.
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The person giving the advice returns the confidence placed in him with a disinterested eagerness... and he is usually guided only by his own interest or reputation.
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We sometimes imagine we hate flattery, but we only hate the way we are flattered.
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Even women are perfect at the outset.
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Το know how to profit by good advice, requires nearly as much ability as to know how to act for one'self.
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The passions of youth are not more dangerous to health than is the lukewarmness of old age.
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Whatever ignominy or disgrace we have incurred, it is almost always in our power to reestablish our reputation.
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Our wisdom lies as much at the mercy of fortune as our possessions do.
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Those only are despicable who fear to be despised.
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We get so much in the habit of wearing disguises before others that we finally appear disguised before ourselves.
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Nothing should lessen our satisfaction with ourselves as much as when we notice that we disapprove of something at one time that we approve of at another time.
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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.
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If one judges love by the majority of its effects, it is more like hatred than like friendship.
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The contempt of riches in philosophers was only a hidden desire to avenge their merit upon the injustice of fortune, by despising the very goods of which fortune had deprived them it was a secret to guard themselves against the degradation of poverty, it was a back way by which to arrive at that distinction which they could not gain by riches.
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