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Imagination does not enable us to invent as many different contradictions as there are by nature in every heart.

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
Every
Contradiction
Invention
Imagination
Nature
Doe
Many
Contradictions
Different
Enable
Heart
Invent

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There is at least as much eloquence in the voice, eyes, and air of a speaker as in his choice of words.
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Absence cools moderate passions, and inflames violent ones just as the wind blows out candles, but kindles fires.
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A man seldom finds people unthankful, as long as he remains in a condition of benefiting them further.
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We only confess our little faults to persuade people that we have no big ones.
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It is a mistake to imagine, that the violent passions only, such as ambition and love, can triumph over the rest. Idleness, languid as it is, often masters them all she influences all our designs and actions, and insensibly consumes and destroys both passions and virtues.
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When a man must force himself to be faithful in his love, this is hardly better than unfaithfulness.
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The person giving the advice returns the confidence placed in him with a disinterested eagerness... and he is usually guided only by his own interest or reputation.
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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.
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He who lives without folly isn't so wise as he thinks.
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Virtues lose themselves in self-interest, as rivers in the sea.
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In great affairs we ought to apply ourselves less to creating chances than to profiting from those that offer.
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Old people love to give good advice it compensates them for their inability to set a bad example.
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In misfortune we often mistake dejection for constancy we bear it without daring to look on it like cowards, who suffer themselves to be murdered without resistance.
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Female gossips are generally actuated by active ignorance.
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It is sometimes necessary to play the fool to avoid being deceived by cunning men.
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The name and pretense of virtue is as serviceable to self-interest as are real vices.
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Madmen and fools see everything through the medium of humor.
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Whatever discoveries we may have made in the regions of self-love, there still remain many unknown lands.
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To know oneself is not necessarily to improve oneself
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The judgments our enemies make about us come nearer to the truth than those we make about ourselves.
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