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Sincerity is a certain openness of heart. It is to be found in very few, and what we commonly look upon to be so is only a cunningsort of dissimulation, to insinuate ourselves into the confidence of others.

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
Certain
Commonly
Look
Openness
Looks
Hypocrisy
Heart
Sincerity
Confidence
Upon
Found
Insinuate
Others
Dissimulation

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It is not always for virtue's sake that women are virtuous.
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The passions often engender their contraries.
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As it is the mark of great minds to say many things in a few words, so it is that of little minds to use many words to say nothing.
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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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The rust of business is sometimes polished off in a camp but never in a court.
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Οur own distrust somewhat justifies the deceit of others.
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A woman is faithful to her first lover for a long time - unless she happens to take a second.
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Second-rate minds usually condemn everything beyond their grasp.
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That man, we may be sure, is a person of true worth, whom those who envy him most are yet forced to praise.
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We come altogether fresh and raw into the several stages of life, and often find ourselves without experience, despite our years.
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A certain harmony should be kept between actions and ideas if we want to fully develop the effects they can produce.
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Our hopes, often though they deceive us, lead us pleasantly along the path of life.
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No man deserves to be praised for his goodness, who has it not in his power to be wicked. Goodness without that power is generally nothing more than sloth, or an impotence of will.
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Those who are condemned to death affect sometimes a constancy and contempt for death which is only the fear of facing it so that one may say that this constancy and contempt are to their mind what the bandage is to their eyes.
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As great minds have the faculty of saying a great deal in a few words, so lesser minds have a talent of talking much, and saying nothing.
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The reason that lovers never weary each other is because they are always talking about themselves.
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