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However wicked men may be, they do not dare openly to appear the enemies of virtue, and when they desire to persecute her they either pretend to believe her false or attribute crimes to her.
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
Enemy
Enemies
Desire
Appear
Persecute
May
False
Attribute
Believe
Dare
Openly
Men
However
Crimes
Crime
Attributes
Virtue
Pretend
Either
Wicked
More quotes by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Of all our faults, the one we avow most easily is idleness we persuade ourselves that it is allied to all the peaceable virtues,and as for the others, that it does not destroy them utterly, but only suspends the exercise of their functions.
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We speak little if not egged on by vanity.
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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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To boast that one never flirts is actually a kind of flirtation.
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It is as proper to have pride in oneself as it ridiculous to show it to others.
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We easily forgive our friends those faults that do no affect us ourselves.
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None deserve praise for being good who have not the spirit to be bad: goodness, for the most part, is nothing but indolence or weakness of will.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Cunning and treachery are the offspring of incapacity.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
We sometimes imagine we hate flattery, but we only hate the way we are flattered.
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We often forgive those who bore us, but we cannot forgive those whom we bore.
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Ridicule dishonours more than dishonour.
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We are much harder on people who betray us in small ways than on people who betray others in great ones.
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We confess to little faults only to persuade ourselves we have no great ones.
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Innocence is lucky if it finds the same protection as guilt
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Jealousy is always born with love, but does not die with it. In jealousy there is more of self-love than of love to another.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
True bravery is shown by performing without witness what one might be capable of doing before all the world.
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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.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
The more one loves a mistress, the more one is ready to hate her.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
What we take for virtue is often but an assemblage of various ambitions and activities that chance, or our own astuteness, have arranged in a certain manner and it is not always out of courage or purity that men are brave, and women chaste.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
The strongest symptom of wisdom in man is his being sensible of his own follies.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
