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

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A man's wits are better employed in bearing up under the misfortunes that lie upon him at present than in foreseeing those that may come upon him hereafter.
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Our merit gains us the esteem of the virtuous-our star that of the public.
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Loyalty is in most people only a ruse used by self-interest to attract confidence.
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Philosophy finds it an easy matter to vanquish past and future evils, but the present are commonly too hard for it.
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People are often vain of their passions, even of the worst, but envy is a passion so timid and shame-faced that no one ever dare avow her.
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Sincerity is a certain openness of heart. It is to be found in very few, and what we commonly look upon to be so is only a cunningsort of dissimulation, to insinuate ourselves into the confidence of others.
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Jealousy lives upon doubts. It becomes madness or ceases entirely as soon as we pass from doubt to certainty.
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A certain harmony should be kept between actions and ideas if we want to fully develop the effects they can produce.
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Affected simplicity is a subtle imposture.
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A well-trained mind has less difficulty in submitting to than in guiding an ill-trained mind.
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Hope and fear are inseparable. There is no hope without fear, nor any fear without hope.
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No accidents are so unlucky [bad] but that the wise may draw some advantage [good] from them.
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Sobriety is concern for one's health - or limited capacity.
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We are never so easily deceived as when we imagine we are deceiving others.
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The distempers of the soul have their relapses, as many and as dangerous as those of the body and what we take for a perfect cureis generally either an abatement of the same disease or the changing of that for another.
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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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It is often hard to determine whether a clear, open, and honorable proceeding is the result of goodness or of cunning.
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If we did not have pride, we would not complain of it in others.
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We have more indolence in the mind than in the body.
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The largest ambition has the least appearance of ambition when it meets with an absolute impossibility in compassing its object.
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