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Eloquence: saying the proper thing and stopping.

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
Eloquence
Stopping
Proper
Speech
Saying
Thing

More quotes by Francois de La Rochefoucauld

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If one judges love by the majority of its effects, it is more like hatred than like friendship.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
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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
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The love of new acquaintance comes not so much from being weary of what we had before, or from any satisfaction there is in change, as from the distaste we feel in being too little admired by those that know us too well, and the hope of being more admired by those that know us less.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
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Spiritual health is no more stable than bodily and though we may seem unaffected by the passions we are just as liable to be carried away by them as to fall ill when in good health.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
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Jealousy lives upon doubts. It becomes madness or ceases entirely as soon as we pass from doubt to certainty.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
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It is difficult to define love all we can say is, that in the soul it is a desire to rule, in the mind it is a sympathy, and in the body it is a hidden and delicate wish to possess what we love-Plus many mysteries.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
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The intellect of the generality of women serves more to fortify their folly than their reason.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
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Folly pursues us at all periods of our lives. If someone seems wise it is only because his follies are proportionate to his age and fortune.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
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There are but very few men clever enough to know all the mischief they do.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
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People are often vain of their passions, even of the worst, but envy is a passion so timid and shame-faced that no one ever dare avow her.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
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Sometimes accidents happen in life from which we have need of a little madness to extricate ourselves successfully
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
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Magnanimity is sufficiently defined by its name, nevertheless one can say it is the good sense of pride, the most noble way of receiving praise.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
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Virtue would not make such advances if there were not a little vanity to keep it company.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
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Whatever ignominy or disgrace we have incurred, it is almost always in our power to reestablish our reputation.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
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Love often leads on to ambition, but seldom does one return from ambition to love.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
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We confess to little faults only to persuade ourselves we have no great ones.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
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One man may be more cunning than another, but no one can be more cunning than all the world.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
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One may outwit another, but not all the others.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
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The clemency of Princes is often but policy to win the affections of the people.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
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Gratitude is merely the secret hope of further favors.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld