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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.]

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
Make
Ridicule
Affect
Qualities
Ridiculous
Quality
Character

More quotes by Francois de La Rochefoucauld

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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
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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
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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
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We acknowledge our faults in order to repair by our sincerity the damage they have done us in the eyes of others.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
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It is pointless for a woman to be young unless pretty, or to be pretty unless young.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
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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.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
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Love can no more continue without a constant motion than fire can and when once you take hope and fear away, you take from it its very life and being.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
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A man is ridiculous less through the characteristics he has than through those he affects to have.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
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Considering how little the beginning or the ceasing to love is in our own power, it is foolish and unreasonable for the lover or his mistress to complain of one another's inconstancy.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
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Men are inconsolable concerning the treachery of their friends or the deceptions of their enemies and yet they are often very highly satisfied to be both deceived and betrayed by their own selves.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
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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.]
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
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The accent of one's birthplace remains in the mind and in the heart as in one's speech.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
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Great and glorious events which dazzle the beholder are represented by politicians as the outcome of grand designs whereas they are usually products of temperaments and passions.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
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Love's greatest miracle is the curing of coquetry.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
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Humility is the sure evidence of Christian virtues. Without it, we retain all our faults still, and they are only covered over with pride, which hides them from other men's observation, and sometimes from our own too.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
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Sometimes there are accidents in our lives the skillful extrication from which demands a little folly.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
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Virtue would go far if vanity did not keep it company.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
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If we took as much pains to be what we ought, as we do to deceive others by disguising what we are we might appear as we are, without being at the trouble of any disguise.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
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No fools are so difficult to manage as those with some brains.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
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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.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld