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The vices enter into the composition of the virtues, as poisons into that of medicines. Prudence collects and arranges them, and uses them beneficially against the ills of life.

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
Virtues
Arranges
Poison
Collects
Enter
Medicines
Vices
Poisons
Medicine
Ills
Virtue
Prudence
Use
Composition
Life
Uses
Beneficially

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We confess to little faults only to persuade ourselves we have no great ones.
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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.
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Constancy in love is a perpetual inconstancy which fixes our hearts successively to all the qualities of the person loved--sometimes admiring one and sometimes another above all the rest--so that this constancy roves as far as it can, and is no better than inconstancy, confined within the compass of one person.
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The more one loves a mistress, the more one is ready to hate her.
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Sobriety is concern for one's health - or limited capacity.
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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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Commonplace minds usually condemn what is beyond the reach of their understanding.
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Nothing is rarer than true good nature they who are reputed to have it are generally only pliant or weak.
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We may say of agreeableness, as distinct from beauty, that it is a symmetry whose rules are unknown.
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If it were not for the company of fools, a witty man would often be greatly at a loss.
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Flattery is a kind of bad money, to which our vanity gives us currency.
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There are two sorts of constancy in love one arises from continually discovering in the loved person new subjects for love, the other arises from our making a merit of being constant.
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Love often leads on to ambition, but seldom does one return from ambition to love.
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When the soul is ruffled by the remains of one passion, it is more disposed to entertain a new one than when it is entirely curedand at rest from all.
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Our aversion to lying is commonly a secret ambition to make what we say considerable, and have every word received with a religious respect.
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More men are guilty of treason through weakness than any studied design to betray.
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Customary use of artifice is the sign of a small mind, and it almost always happens that he who uses it to cover one spot uncovers himself in another.
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We often brag that we are never bored with ourselves, and are so vain as never to think ourselves bad company.
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The whimsicalness of our own humor is a thousand times more fickle and unaccountable than what we blame so much in fortune.
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It is easier to deceive yourself, and to do so unperceived, than to deceive another.
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