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All our qualities, whether good or bad, are unstable and ambiguous, and almost all are at the mery of chance.

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
Almost
Quality
Chance
Whether
Good
Ambiguous
Unstable
Qualities
Risk

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Virtues lose themselves in self-interest, as rivers in the sea.
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Clemency, which we make a virtue of, proceeds sometimes from vanity, sometimes from indolence, often from fear, and almost always from a mixture of all three.
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The name and pretense of virtue is as serviceable to self-interest as are real vices.
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It is not expedient or wise to examine our friends too closely few persons are raised in our esteem by a close examination.
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That conduct often seems ridiculous the secret reasons of which are wise and solid.
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We should gain more by letting the world see what we are than by trying to seem what we are not.
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Some people displease with merit, and others' very faults and defects are pleasing.
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In misfortune we often mistake dejection for constancy we bear it without daring to look on it like cowards, who suffer themselves to be murdered without resistance.
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Our temper sets a price upon every gift that we receive from fortune.
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It is pointless for a woman to be young unless pretty, or to be pretty unless young.
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We get so much in the habit of wearing disguises before others that we finally appear disguised before ourselves.
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There are no circumstances, however unfortunate, that clever people do not extract some advantage from.
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We speak little if not egged on by vanity.
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We are eager to believe that others are flawed because we are eager to believe in what we wish for.
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Men more easily renounce their interests than their tastes.
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We often make use of envenomed praise, that reveals on the rebound, as it were, defects in those praised which we dare not exposeany other way.
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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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Jealousy is not love, but self-love.
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