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The name and pretense of virtue is as serviceable to self-interest as are real vices.
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
Names
Interest
Self
Real
Serviceable
Pretense
Vices
Name
Virtue
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There are reproaches which praise, and praises which defame.
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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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It is not enough to have great qualities We should also have the management of them.
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A respectable man may love madly, but not foolishly.
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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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Men and things have each their proper perspective to judge rightly of some it is necessary to see them near, of others we can never judge rightly but at a distance.
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Some people displease with merit, and others' very faults and defects are pleasing.
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However greatly we distrust the sincerity of those we converse with, yet still we think they tell more truth to us than to anyone else.
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As uncommon a thing as true love is, it is yet easier to find than true friendship.
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The temperament that produces a talent for little things is the opposite of that required for great ones.
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Numberless arts appear foolish whose secret motives are most wise and weighty.
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Hope and fear are inseparable. There is no hope without fear, nor any fear without hope.
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True bravery means doing alone that which one could do if all the world were by.
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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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Pride indemnifies itself and loses nothing even when it casts away vanity.
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To know oneself is not necessarily to improve oneself
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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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Ideas often flash across our minds more complete than we could make them after much labor.
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Jealousy is in some measure just and reasonable, since it merely aims at keeping something that belongs to us or we think belongsto us, whereas envy is a frenzy that cannot bear anything that belongs to others.
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Generally speaking, we would make a good bargain by renouncing all the good that people say of us, upon condition they would say no ill.
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