Quote

Second-rate minds usually condemn everything beyond their grasp.

Francois de La Rochefoucauld

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

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
Minds
Usually
Beyond
Second
Everything
Mind
Condemn
Grasp
Rate

More quotes by Francois de La Rochefoucauld

Image
What renders other people's vanity insufferable is that it wounds our own.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Image
Virtue would go far if vanity did not keep it company.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Image
A man would rather say evil of himself than say nothing.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Image
One thing which makes us find so few people who appear reasonable and agreeable in conversation is, that there is scarcely any one who does not think more of what he is about to say than of answering precisely what is said to him.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Image
Tis more dishonourable to distrust a friend than to be deceived by him.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Image
Penetration has an air of divination it pleases our vanity more than any other quality of the mind.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Image
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.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Image
To praise princes for virtues they do not possess is to insult them without fear of consequences.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Image
Jealousy is always born with love, but does not die with it. In jealousy there is more of self-love than of love to another.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Image
Envy is more incapable of reconciliation than hatred is.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Image
Whatever pretext we may give for our affections, often it is only interest and vanity which cause them.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Image
Nothing prevents one from appearing natural as the desire to appear natural.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Image
It is often merely for an excuse that we say things are impossible.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Image
Men are often so foolish as to boast and value themselves upon their passions, even those that are most vicious. But envy is a passion so full of cowardice and shame that no one every ever had the confidence to own it.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Image
Absence abates a moderate passion and intensifies a great one - as the wind blows out a candle but fans fire into flame.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Image
We easily forgive our friends those faults that do no affect us ourselves.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Image
In the human heart new passions are forever being born the overthrow of one almost always means the rise of another.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Image
It is easier to rule others than to keep from being ruled oneself.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Image
A man often believes himself leader when he is led as his mind endeavors to reach one goal, his heart insensibly drags him towards another.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Image
When we enlarge upon the affection our friends have for us, this is very often not so much out of a sense of gratitude as from a desire to persuade people of our own great worth, that can deserve so much kindness.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld