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Honest people will respect us for our merit: the public, for our luck.

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
Honest
Public
People
Respectability
Merit
Luck
Respect

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It is as easy to deceive one's self without perceiving it, as it is difficult to deceive others without their finding out.
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What makes false reckoning, as regards gratitude, is that the pride of the giver and the receiver cannot agree as to the value of the benefit.
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We should often feel ashamed of our best actions if the world could see all the motives which produced them.
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Indolence, languid as it is, often masters both passions and virtues.
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When our vices desert us, we flatter ourselves that we are deserting our vices.
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A man of understanding finds less difficulty in submitting to a wrong-headed fellow, than in attempting to set him right.
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No man deserves to be praised for his goodness, who has it not in his power to be wicked. Goodness without that power is generally nothing more than sloth, or an impotence of will.
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We acknowledge our faults in order to repair by our sincerity the damage they have done us in the eyes of others.
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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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A man may be sharper than another, but not than all others.
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The esteem of good men is the reward of our worth, but the reputation of the world in general is the gift of our fate.
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Many young persons believe themselves natural when they are only impolite and coarse.
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The passions often engender their contraries.
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Jealousy is bred in doubts. When those doubts change into certainties, then the passion either ceases or turns absolute madness.
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No men are oftener wrong than those that can least bear to be so.
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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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The head does not know how to play the part of the heart for long.
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