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None deserve praise for being good who have not the spirit to be bad: goodness, for the most part, is nothing but indolence or weakness of will.
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
Fear
Indolence
Spirit
Rage
Part
Goodness
Nothing
Praise
Good
Weakness
None
Atheism
Deserve
More quotes by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
As it is the mark of great minds to say many things in a few words, so it is that of little minds to use many words to say nothing.
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We can be more clever than one, but not more clever than all.
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The heart of man ever finds a constant succession of passions, so that the destroying and pulling down of one proves generally tobe nothing else but the production and the setting up of another.
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Though nature be ever so generous, yet can she not make a hero alone. Fortune must contribute her part too and till both concur, the work cannot be perfected.
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Our enemies' opinion of us comes closer to the truth than our own.
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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.
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Men never desire anything very eagerly which they desire only by the dictates of reason.
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Some people are like popular songs that you only sing for a short time.
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Hypocrisy is the homage vice pays to virtue.
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We have not strength enough to follow our reason so far as it would carry us.
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Men are often so foolish as to boast and value themselves upon their passions, even those that are most vicious. But envy is a passion so full of cowardice and shame that no one every ever had the confidence to own it.
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Our good qualities expose us more to hatred and persecution than all the ill we do.
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A weak mind is the only defect out of our power to mend.
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There are various sorts of curiosity one is from interest, which makes us desire to know that which may be useful to us and the other, from pride which comes from the wish to know what others are ignorant of.
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Great and glorious events which dazzle the beholder are represented by politicians as the outcome of grand designs whereas they are usually products of temperaments and passions.
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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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Too great haste to repay an obligation is a kind of ingratitude.
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Some good qualities are like the senses: Those who are entirely deprived of them can have no notion of them.
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Fortunate persons hardly ever amend their ways: they always imagine that they are in the right when fortune upholds their bad conduct.
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Perfect Valor is to do, without a witness, all that we could do before the whole world.
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