Share
×
Inspirational Quotes
Authors
Professions
Topics
Tags
Quote
Though men are apt to flatter and exalt themselves with their great achievements, yet these are, in truth, very often owing not so much to design as chance.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Share
Change background
T
T
T
Change font
Original
TAGS & TOPICS
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
Often
Exalt
Truth
Flatter
Great
Owing
Much
Achievements
Men
Achievement
Design
Though
Chance
More quotes by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Truth does less good in the world than its appearances do harm.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
To praise princes for virtues they do not possess is to insult them without fear of consequences.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
No men are oftener wrong than those that can least bear to be so.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Ability wins us the esteem of the true men luck, that of the people.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
The height of ability in the least able consists in knowing how to submit to the good leadership of others.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Great souls are not those who have fewer passions and more virtues than others, but only those who have greater designs.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
To praise great actions with sincerity may be said to be taking part in them.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
The applause we give those who are new to society often proceeds from a secret envying of those already established.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
That man, we may be sure, is a person of true worth, whom those who envy him most are yet forced to praise.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
We should gain more by letting the world see what we are than by trying to seem what we are not.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
There are no events so disastrous that adroit men do not draw some advantage from them, nor any so fortunate that the imprudent cannot turn to their own prejudice.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Whatever discoveries we may have made in the regions of self-love, there still remain many unknown lands.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
What renders other people's vanity insufferable is that it wounds our own.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
We are much harder on people who betray us in small ways than on people who betray others in great ones.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
The sure way to be cheated is to think one's self more cunning than others.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
A man seldom finds people unthankful, as long as he remains in a condition of benefiting them further.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
It is difficult to like those whom we do not esteem but it is no less so to like those whom we esteem more than ourselves.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
A man may be sharper than another, but not than all others.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Women can less easily surmount their coquetry than their passions.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
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.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
