Quote

Customary use of artifice is the sign of a small mind, and it almost always happens that he who uses it to cover one spot uncovers himself in another.

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
Mind
Cover
Always
Spots
Sign
Small
Uncovers
Almost
Customary
Use
Artifice
Another
Spot
Happens
Uses

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Hope, deceiving as it is, serves at least to lead us to the end of our lives by an agreeable route.
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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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Great men should not have great faults.
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Reconciliation with our enemies is simply a desire to better our condition, a weariness of war, or the fear of some unlucky thing from occurring.
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There is a form of eminence which does not depend on fate it is an air which sets us apart and seems to prtend great things it is the value which we unconsciously attach to ourselves it is the quality which wins us deference of others more than birth, position, or ability, it gives us ascendance.
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We come altogether fresh and raw into the several stages of life, and often find ourselves without experience, despite our years.
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We seldom find people ungrateful so long as it is thought we can serve 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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We acknowledge our faults in order to repair by our sincerity the damage they have done us in the eyes of others.
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Female gossips are generally actuated by active ignorance.
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We often in our misfortunes take that for constancy and patience which is only dejection of mind we suffer without daring to holdup our heads, just as cowards let themselves be knocked on the head because they have not courage to strike back.
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We are more interested in making others believe we are happy than in trying to be happy ourselves.
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It is not always for virtue's sake that women are virtuous.
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