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If it requires great tact to speak to the purpose, it requires no less to know when to be silent.
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
Speakers
Requires
Silent
Purpose
Less
Speak
Great
Tact
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The whimsicalness of our own humor is a thousand times more fickle and unaccountable than what we blame so much in fortune.
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The exceeding delight we take in talking about ourselves should give us cause to fear that we are giving but very little pleasureto our listeners.
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What makes lovers never tire of one another is that they talk always about themselves.
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We should often feel ashamed of our best actions if the world could see all the motives which produced them.
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Sometimes we lose friends for whose loss our regret is greater than our grief, and others for whom our grief is greater than our regret.
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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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Praise is a more ingenious, concealed, and subtle kind of flattery, that satisfies both the giver and the receiver, though by verydifferent ways. The one accepts it as a reward due to his merit the other gives it that he may be looked upon as a just and discerning person.
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The more one loves a mistress, the more one is ready to hate her.
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Sometimes accidents happen in life from which we have need of a little madness to extricate ourselves successfully
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It is as common for tastes to change as it is uncommon for traits of character.
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Most men expose themselves in battle enough to save their honor, few wish to do so more than sufficiently, or than is necessary to make the design for which they expose themselves succeed.
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Friendship is insipid to those who have experienced love.
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We are not fond of praising, and never praise any one except from interested motives. Praise is a clever, concealed, and delicate flattery, which gratifies in different ways the giver and the receiver. The one takes it as a recompense of his merit, and the other bestows it to display his equity and discernment.
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Treachery is more often the effect of weakness than of a formed design.
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Passion often renders the most clever man a fool, and sometimes renders the most foolish man clever.
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Nature makes merit, and fortune puts it to work.
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The evil that we do does not attract to us so much persecution and hatred as our good qualities.
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