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The passions are the only orators that always persuade: they are, as it were, a natural art, the rules of which are infallible and the simplest man with passion is more persuasive than the most eloquent without it.

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
Without
Persuade
Always
Eloquent
Men
Simplest
Passions
Rules
Orators
Passion
Oratory
Natural
Persuasive
Art
Infallible

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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.]
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Cunning and treachery are the offspring of incapacity.
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The intellect is always fooled by the heart.
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More men are guilty of treason through weakness than any studied design to betray.
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There are few people more convinced of their own genius than those who complain of how stupid they are.
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Men and things have each their proper perspective to judge rightly of some it is necessary to see them near, of others we can never judge rightly but at a distance.
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There are various sorts of curiosity one is from interest, which makes us desire to know that which may be useful to us and the other, from pride which comes from the wish to know what others are ignorant of.
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The constancy of sages is nothing but the art of locking up their agitation in their hearts.
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Fortune turns all things to the advantage of those on whom she smiles.
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The accent of a man's native country remains in his mind and his heart, as it does in his speech.
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Familiarity is a suspension of almost all the laws of civility, which libertinism has introduced into society under the notion of ease.
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When our hatred is violent, it sinks us even beneath those we hate.
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The qualities we have do not make us so ridiculous as those which we affect to have. [Fr., On n'est jamais si ridicule par les qualites que l'on a que par celles que l'on affecte d'avoir.]
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A man may be sharper than another, but not than all others.
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Moderation is like sobriety: you would like to have some more, but are afraid of making yourself ill.
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Whatever good things people say of us, they tell us nothing new.
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A man often imagines that he acts, when he is acted upon.
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The first lover is kept a long while, when no offer is made of a second.
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As we grow older, we increase in folly--and in wisdom.
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There is at least as much eloquence in the voice, eyes, and air of a speaker as in his choice of words.
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