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It is as common for tastes to change as it is uncommon for traits of character.
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
Uncommon
Tastes
Traits
Taste
Common
Change
Character
More quotes by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
The cunningest dissimulation is when a man pretends to be caught in the traps others set for him and a man is never so easily over-reached as when he is contriving to over-reach others.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
We seldom find people ungrateful so long as it is thought we can serve them.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Even the most disinterested love is, after all, but a kind of bargain, in which self-love always proposes to be the gainer one wayor another.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
We easily forgive our friends those faults that do no affect us ourselves.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
No accidents are so unlucky [bad] but that the wise may draw some advantage [good] from them.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Our enemies' opinion of us comes closer to the truth than our own.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
There are some faults which, when well managed, make a greater figure than virtue itself.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Were we faultless, we would not derive such satisfaction from remarking the faults of others.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Most people know no other way of judging men's worth but by the vogue they are in, or the fortunes they have met with.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Our repentances are generally not so much a concern and remorse for the harm we have done, as a fear of the harm we may have brought upon ourselves.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
If we did not have pride, we would not complain of it in others.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Cunning and treachery are the offspring of incapacity.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
It is a mistake to imagine, that the violent passions only, such as ambition and love, can triumph over the rest. Idleness, languid as it is, often masters them all she influences all our designs and actions, and insensibly consumes and destroys both passions and virtues.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
The most clever and polite are content with only seeming attentive while we perceive in their mind and eyes that at the very time they are wandering from what is said and desire to return to what they want to say.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
To establish ourselves in the world, we have to do all we can to appear established. To succeed in the world, we do everything we can to appear successful.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
The esteem of good men is the reward of our worth, but the reputation of the world in general is the gift of our fate.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
What is called liberality is often merely the vanity of giving.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
We only confess our little faults to persuade people that we have no big ones.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
We sometimes condemn the present, by praising the past and show our contempt of what is now, by our esteem for what is no more.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
The desire which urges us to deserve praise strengthens our good qualities, and praise given to wit, valour, and beauty, tends to increase them.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld