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Before we passionately desire a thing, we should examine the happiness of its possessor.

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
Thing
Possessor
Passionately
Examine
Happiness
Desire

More quotes by Francois de La Rochefoucauld

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On why I don't trust democracy without extremely powerful systems of accountability and recall What seems to be generosity is often only disguised ambition - which despises small interests to gain great ones.
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Not to love is in love an infallible means of being loved.
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Weak people cannot be sincere.
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Many young persons believe themselves natural when they are only impolite and coarse.
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It is as easy to deceive one's self without perceiving it, as it is difficult to deceive others without their finding out.
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Women can less easily surmount their coquetry than their passions.
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We are not fond of praising, and never praise any one except from interested motives. Praise is a clever, concealed, and delicate flattery, which gratifies in different ways the giver and the receiver. The one takes it as a recompense of his merit, and the other bestows it to display his equity and discernment.
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Though men are apt to flatter and exalt themselves with their great achievements, yet these are, in truth, very often owing not so much to design as chance.
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Our distrust of another justifies his deceit.
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Men more easily renounce their interests than their tastes.
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Nothing is rarer than real goodness.
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Conceit causes more conversation than wit.
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Mediocre minds usually dismiss anything which reaches beyond their own understanding.
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The desire of appearing clever often prevents our becoming so.
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Virtue would not make such advances if there were not a little vanity to keep it company.
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Vices are ingredients of virtues just as poisons are ingredients of remedies. Prudence mixes and tempers them and uses them effectively against life's ills.
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Some people resemble ballads which are only sung for a certain time.
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What we take for high-mindedness is very often no other than ambition well disguised, that scorns means interests, only to pursuegreater.
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We feel good and ill only in proportion to our self-love.
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We are better pleased to see those on whom we confer benefits than those from whom we receive them.
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