Quote

Moderation is represented as a virtue in order to restrain the ambition of great men, and to console those of a meaner condition in their lesser merit and fortune.

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
Condition
Fortune
Meaner
Ambition
Restrain
Conditions
Console
Virtue
Lesser
Order
Represented
Great
Moderation
Men
Merit

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Before we passionately desire a thing, we should examine the happiness of its possessor.
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Repentance is not so much remorse for what we have done as the fear of the consequences.
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Selfishness is the grand moving principle of nine-tenths of our actions.
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Ridicule dishonours more than dishonour.
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The accent of a man's native country remains in his mind and his heart, as it does in his speech.
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The one thing people are the most liberal with, is their advice.
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It is difficult to define love all we can say is, that in the soul it is a desire to rule, in the mind it is a sympathy, and in the body it is a hidden and delicate wish to possess what we love-Plus many mysteries.
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Nothing is more contagious than example, and no man does any exceeding good or exceeding ill but it spawns new deeds of the same kind. The good we imitate through emulation, the ill through the malignity of our nature, which shame keeps locked up, but example sets free.
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Weakness of character is the only defect which cannot be amended.
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Neither the sun nor death can be looked at steadily.
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Youth is a continual intoxication it is the fever of reason.
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Good taste comes more from the judgment than from the mind.
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The wind which snuffs the candle fans the fire.
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Gratitude is like the good faith of traders: it maintains commerce, and we often pay, not because it is just to discharge our debts, but that we may more readily find people to trust us.
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Humility is often only feigned submission which people use to render others submissive. It is a subterfuge of pride which lowers itself in order to rise.
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Virtues lose themselves in self-interest, as rivers in the sea.
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Hope and fear are inseparable.
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There are but very few men clever enough to know all the mischief they do.
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We rarely think people have good sense unless they agree with us.
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