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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
Nothing
Speaking
Great
Gift
Much
Seem
Saying
Wisdom
Wits
Small
Characteristic
Words
Wit
Seems
Characteristics
More quotes by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Happiness is in the taste, and not in the things themselves we are happy from possessing what we like, not from possessing what others like.
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There are reproaches which praise, and praises which defame.
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The great interests of man: air and light, the joy of having a body, the voluptuousness of looking.
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Many young persons believe themselves natural when they are only impolite and coarse.
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The most subtle of our acts is to simulate blindness for snares that we know are set for us.
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The old begin to complain of the conduct of the young when they themselves are no longer able to set a bad example.
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However wicked men may be, they do not dare openly to appear the enemies of virtue, and when they desire to persecute her they either pretend to believe her false or attribute crimes to her.
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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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The first lover is kept a long while, when no offer is made of a second.
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No fools are so difficult to manage as those with some brains.
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Those only are despicable who fear to be despised.
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It is with sincere affection or friendship as with ghosts and apparitions,--a thing that everybody talks of, and scarce any hath seen.
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Constancy in love is a perpetual inconstancy which fixes our hearts successively to all the qualities of the person loved--sometimes admiring one and sometimes another above all the rest--so that this constancy roves as far as it can, and is no better than inconstancy, confined within the compass of one person.
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The strongest symptom of wisdom in man is his being sensible of his own follies.
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Prudence and love are inconsistent in proportion as the last increases, the other decreases.
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Most men expose themselves in battle enough to save their honor, few wish to do so more than sufficiently, or than is necessary to make the design for which they expose themselves succeed.
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Sobriety is love of health, or inability to eat much.
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The extreme delight we experience in talking about ourselves should warn us that those who listen do not share it.
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The vices enter into the composition of the virtues, as poisons into that of medicines. Prudence collects and arranges them, and uses them beneficially against the ills of life.
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There are some persons who only disgust with their abilities, there are persons who please even with their faults.
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