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We would rather speak ill of ourselves than not talk about ourselves at all.

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
Talk
Rather
Speak
Would
Egotism
Ill

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Though nature be ever so generous, yet can she not make a hero alone. Fortune must contribute her part too and till both concur, the work cannot be perfected.
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A readiness to believe ill of others, before we have duly examined it, is the effect of laziness and pride. We are eager to find aculprit, and loath to give ourselves the trouble of examining the crime.
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Perfect courage is to do without witnesses what one would be capable of doing with the world looking on.
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Those who are condemned to death affect sometimes a constancy and contempt for death which is only the fear of facing it so that one may say that this constancy and contempt are to their mind what the bandage is to their eyes.
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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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The passions often engender their contraries.
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Women know not the whole of their coquetry.
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Gratitude is like the good faith of traders: it maintains commerce, and we often pay, not because it is just to discharge our debts, but that we may more readily find people to trust us.
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Gracefulness is to the body what understanding is to the mind.
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What we take for virtue is often nothing but an assemblage of different actions, and of different interests, that fortune or our industry knows how to arrange.
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There are two things which Man cannot look at directly without flinching: the sun and death.
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In the misfortunes of our best friends we always find something not altogether displeasing to us.
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It is much better to learn to deal with the ills we have now than to speculate on those that may befall us.
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There are some bad qualities which make great talents.
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Second-rate minds usually condemn everything beyond their grasp.
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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.
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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 only real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes. The glory of great men should always be measured by the means they have used to acpuire it.
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It is as common for tastes to change as it is uncommon for traits of character.
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Sobriety is love of health, or inability to eat much.
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