Quote

Whatever pretext we may give for our affections, often it is only interest and vanity which cause them.

Francois de La Rochefoucauld

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

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
Interest
Whatever
Often
Pretext
Give
Affections
May
Vanity
Giving
Affection
Cause
Causes

More quotes by Francois de La Rochefoucauld

Image
Gallantry of mind consists in saying flattering things in an agreeable manner.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Image
We had better appear what we are, than affect to appear what we are not.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Image
Our good qualities expose us more to hatred and persecution than all the ill we do.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Image
Old people love to give good advice it compensates them for their inability to set a bad example.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Image
There are heroes of wickedness, as there are of goodness.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Image
Listening well and answering well is one of the greatest perfections that can be obtained in conversation.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Image
He who lives without committing any folly is not so wise as he thinks. [Fr., Qui vit sans folie n'est pas si sage qu'il croit.]
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Image
It is much better to learn to deal with the ills we have now than to speculate on those that may befall us.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Image
The reason we do not let our friends see the very bottom of our hearts is not so much distrust of them as distrust of ourselves.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Image
We make promises to the extent that we hope-and keep them to the extent that we fear.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Image
Death, like the sun, cannot be looked at steadily.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Image
We should not judge a man's merits by his great qualities, but by the use he makes of them.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Image
The head does not know how to play the part of the heart for long.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Image
When our hatred is too alive puts us below what we hate.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Image
Almost everyone takes pleasure in repaying trifling obligations, very many feel gratitude for those that are moderate but there is scarcely anyone who is not ungrateful for those that are weighty.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Image
We may sooner be brought to love them that hate us, than them that love us more than we would have them do.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Image
Nothing is more contagious than example, and no man does any exceeding good or exceeding ill but it spawns new deeds of the same kind. The good we imitate through emulation, the ill through the malignity of our nature, which shame keeps locked up, but example sets free.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Image
Youth is a perpetual intoxication it is a fever of the mind.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Image
True eloquence consists in saying all that should be said, and that only.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Image
Absence abates a moderate passion and intensifies a great one - as the wind blows out a candle but fans fire into flame.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld