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The shame that arises from praise which we do not deserve often makes us do things we should otherwise never have attempted.
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
Otherwise
Shame
Praise
Deserve
Often
Makes
Attempted
Things
Arises
Never
Arise
More quotes by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
The aversion to lying is often a hidden ambition to render our words credible and weighty, and to attach a religious aspect to our conversation.
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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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When we disclaim praise, it is only showing our desire to be praised a second time.
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On why I don't trust democracy without extremely powerful systems of accountability and recall What seems to be generosity is often only disguised ambition - which despises small interests to gain great ones.
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It is as easy to unknowingly deceive yourself as it is to deceive others.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Love of glory, fear of shame, greed for fortune, the desire to make life agreeable and comfortable, and the wish to depreciate others - all of these are often the causes of the bravery that is spoken so highly of by men.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Our own distrust gives a fair pretence for the knavery of other people.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
What men have called friendship is only a social arrangement, a mutual adjustment of interests, an interchange of services given and received it is, in sum, simply a business from which those involved propose to derive a steady profit for their own self-love.
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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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Humility is the sure evidence of Christian virtues. Without it, we retain all our faults still, and they are only covered over with pride, which hides them from other men's observation, and sometimes from our own too.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
There are two sorts of constancy in love one arises from continually discovering in the loved person new subjects for love, the other arises from our making a merit of being constant.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
It is as easy to deceive one's self without perceiving it, as it is difficult to deceive others without their finding out.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
It is most difficult to speak when we are ashamed of being silent.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
We do not praise others, ordinarily, but in order to be praised ourselves.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
There is a kind of elevation which does not depend on fortune it is a certain air which distinguishes us, and seems to destine us for great things it is a price which we imperceptibly set upon ourselves.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Hope and fear are inseparable. There is no hope without fear, nor any fear without hope.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
In every walk of life each man puts on a personality and outward appearance so as to look what he wants to be thought in fact you might say that society is entirely made up of assumed personalities.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
The confidence which we have in ourselves give birth to much of that, which we have in others.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
There is no accident so unfortunate but wise men will make some advantage of it, nor any so entirely fortunate but fools may turn it to their own prejudice.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
There are but very few men clever enough to know all the mischief they do.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
