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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
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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
Men
Achievement
Design
Though
Chance
Often
Exalt
Truth
Flatter
Great
Owing
Much
Achievements
More quotes by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Listening well and answering well is one of the greatest perfections that can be obtained in conversation.
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Innocence is lucky if it finds the same protection as guilt
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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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We are almost always bored by just those whom we must not find boring.
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Wisdom is the mind what health is to the body.
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Praise is a more ingenious, concealed, and subtle kind of flattery, that satisfies both the giver and the receiver, though by verydifferent ways. The one accepts it as a reward due to his merit the other gives it that he may be looked upon as a just and discerning person.
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The height of ability in the least able consists in knowing how to submit to the good leadership of others.
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Fancy sets the value on the gifts of fortune.
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Those great and glorious actions that dazzle our eyes with their luster are represented by statesmen as the result of great wisdomand excellent design whereas, in truth, they are commonly the effects of the humors and passions.
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One may outwit another, but not all the others.
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Too great haste to repay an obligation is a kind of ingratitude.
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Our enemies' opinion of us comes closer to the truth than our own.
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Youth is a perpetual intoxication it is a fever of the mind.
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The greatest of all gifts is the power to estimate things at their true worth
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We are not fond of praising, and never praise any one except from interested motives. Praise is a clever, concealed, and delicate flattery, which gratifies in different ways the giver and the receiver. The one takes it as a recompense of his merit, and the other bestows it to display his equity and discernment.
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The generality of friends puts us out of conceit with friendship just as the generality of religious people puts us out of conceit with religion.
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Clemency, which we make a virtue of, proceeds sometimes from vanity, sometimes from indolence, often from fear, and almost always from a mixture of all three.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
It is as proper to have pride in oneself as it ridiculous to show it to others.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Self-interest speaks all manner of tongues and plays all manner of parts, even that of disinterestedness.
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The more one loves a mistress, the more one is ready to hate her.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
