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Fortune and humor govern the world.

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
World
Govern
Fortune
Humor

More quotes by Francois de La Rochefoucauld

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Sincerity is a certain openness of heart. It is to be found in very few, and what we commonly look upon to be so is only a cunningsort of dissimulation, to insinuate ourselves into the confidence of others.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
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Propriety is the least of all laws, and the most observed.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
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There are persons whose only merit consists in saying and doing stupid things at the right time, and who ruin all if they change their manners.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
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We give advice, but we cannot give the wisdom to profit by it.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
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Men are inconsolable concerning the treachery of their friends or the deceptions of their enemies and yet they are often very highly satisfied to be both deceived and betrayed by their own selves.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
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Moderation is represented as a virtue in order to restrain the ambition of great men, and to console those of a meaner condition in their lesser merit and fortune.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
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A man is ridiculous less through the characteristics he has than through those he affects to have.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
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In friendship, as in love, we are often more happy from the things we are ignorant of than from those we are acquainted with.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
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We are so accustomed to disguise ourselves to others that in the end we become disguised to ourselves.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
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Love is one and the same in the original but there are a thousand different copies of it.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
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It is as common for tastes to change as it is uncommon for traits of character.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
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Friendship is insipid to those who have experienced love.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
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Perfect Valor is to do, without a witness, all that we could do before the whole world.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
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The sure mark of one born with noble qualities is being born without envy.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
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The passions are the only orators that always persuade: they are, as it were, a natural art, the rules of which are infallible and the simplest man with passion is more persuasive than the most eloquent without it.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
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One of the greatest and also the commonest of faults is for men to believe that, because they never hear their shortcomings spoken of, or read about them in cold print, others can have no knowledge of them. GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG, The Reflections of Lichtenberg We are often more agreeable through our faults than our good qualities.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
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True eloquence consists in saying all that should be said, and that only.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
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He that fancies such a sufficiency in himself that he can live without all the world is greatly mistaken but he that imagines himself so necessary that other people cannot live without him is a great deal more mistaken.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
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If it were not for poetry, few men would ever fall in love.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
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Those who most obstinately oppose the most widely-held opinions more often do so because of pride than lack of intelligence. They find the best places in the right set already taken, and they do not want back seats.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld