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Self-interest speaks all manner of tongues and plays all manner of parts, even that of disinterestedness.

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
Self
Speaks
Even
Manner
Plays
Tongue
Parts
Interest
Disinterestedness
Speak
Tongues
Play
Bureaucracy

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For envy, like lightning, generally strikes at the top Or any point which sticks out from the ordinary level. LUCRETIUS, De Rerum Natura Our envy always outlives the felicity of its object.
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Envy is more irreconcilable than hatred.
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To be a great man it is necessary to know how to profit by the whole of our good fortune.
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Perfect courage is to do without witnesses what one would be capable of doing with the world looking on.
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Those who give too much attention to trifling things become generally incapable of great ones.
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High fortune makes both our virtues and vices stand out as objects that are brought clearly to view by the light.
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In all aspects of life, we take on a part and an appearance to seem to be what we wish to be--and thus the world is merely composed of actors.
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Gratitude is merely the secret hope of further favors.
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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.
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There are a great many men valued in society who have nothing to recommend them but serviceable vices.
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To establish ourselves in the world, we have to do all we can to appear established. To succeed in the world, we do everything we can to appear successful.
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As we grow older, we increase in folly--and in wisdom.
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What men have called friendship is only a social arrangement, a mutual adjustment of interests, an interchange of services given and received it is, in sum, simply a business from which those involved propose to derive a steady profit for their own self-love.
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