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The art of using moderate abilities to advantage often brings greater results than actual brilliance

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
Results
Moderate
Greater
Moderates
Ability
Brilliance
Often
Abilities
Art
Actual
Brings
Using
Advantage

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Absence abates a moderate passion and intensifies a great one - as the wind blows out a candle but fans fire into flame.
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Sobriety is love of health, or inability to eat much.
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It is no tragedy to do ungrateful people favors, but it is unbearable to be indebted to a scoundrel.
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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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There is a kind of elevation which does not depend on fortune it is a certain air which distinguishes us, and seems to destine us for great things it is a price which we imperceptibly set upon ourselves.
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Self-love makes our friends appear more or less deserving in proportion to the delight we take in them, and the measures by whichwe judge of their worth depend upon the manner of their conversing with us.
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There are follies as catching as contagious disorders.
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Fortune mends more faults in us than ever reason would be able to do.
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The accent of one's birthplace remains in the mind and in the heart as in one's speech.
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Those that have had great passions esteem themselves for the rest of their lives fortunate and unfortunate in being cured of them.
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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.
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Death, like the sun, cannot be looked at steadily.
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Eloquence resides as much in the tone of voice, in the eyes, and in the expression of the face, as in the choice of words.
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As we grow older, we increase in folly--and in wisdom.
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Eloquence: saying the proper thing and stopping.
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If we had no faults, we would not derive so much pleasure from noting those of other people.
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We say little, when vanity does not make us speak.
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Whatever pretended causes we may blame our afflictions upon, it is often nothing but self-interest and vanity that produce them.
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We may say of agreeableness, as distinct from beauty, that it consists in a symmetry of which we know not the rules, and a secret conformity of the features to each other, as also to the air and complexion of the person.
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Humility is the sure evidence of Christian virtues. Without it, we retain all our faults still, and they are only covered over with pride, which hides them from other men's observation, and sometimes from our own too.
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