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Our enemies come nearer the truth in the opinions they form of us than we do in our opinion of ourselves.
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
Enemy
Opinion
Form
Truth
Come
Nearer
Opinions
Enemies
More quotes by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
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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There is only one kind of love, but there are a thousand imitations.
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Weakness of character is the only defect which cannot be amended.
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Few people have the wisdom to prefer the criticism that would do them good, to the praise that deceives them.
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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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No men are oftener wrong than those that can least bear to be so.
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Self-interest speaks all manner of tongues and plays all manner of parts, even that of disinterestedness.
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What we take for high-mindedness is very often no other than ambition well disguised, that scorns means interests, only to pursuegreater.
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Mediocre minds usually dismiss anything which reaches beyond their own understanding.
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Very few people are acquainted with death. They undergo it, commonly, not so much out of resolution as custom and insensitivity and most men die because they cannot help it.
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We often boast that we are never bored but yet we are so conceited that we do not perceive how often we bore others.
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The caprice of our temper is even more whimsical than that of Fortune.
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There are certain people fated to be fools they not only commit follies by choice, but are even constrained to do so by fortune.
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There are a great many men valued in society who have nothing to recommend them but serviceable vices.
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The good or the bad fortune of men depends not less upon their own dispositions than upon fortune.
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Penetration has an air of divination it pleases our vanity more than any other quality of the mind.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
A man for whom accident discovers sense, is not a rational being. A man only is so who understands, who distinguishes, who tests it.
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Those who most obstinately oppose the most widely-held opinions more often do so because of pride than lack of intelligence. They find the best places in the right set already taken, and they do not want back seats.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
As it is the mark of great minds to say many things in a few words, so it is that of little minds to use many words to say nothing.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Politeness of mind consists in thinking chaste and refined thoughts.
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