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What we take for high-mindedness is very often no other than ambition well disguised, that scorns means interests, only to pursuegreater.

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
Take
Interests
Mean
Ambition
High
Interest
Scorns
Means
Mindedness
Often
Disguised
Wells
Nobility
Well
Scorn

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The caprice of our temper is even more whimsical than that of Fortune.
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Ability wins us the esteem of the true men luck, that of the people.
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We are never either so fortunate or so misfortunate as we imagine.
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We do not despise all those who have vices, but we do despise those that have no virtue.
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What makes false reckoning, as regards gratitude, is that the pride of the giver and the receiver cannot agree as to the value of the benefit.
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Praise is a more ingenious, concealed, and subtle kind of flattery, that satisfies both the giver and the receiver, though by verydifferent ways. The one accepts it as a reward due to his merit the other gives it that he may be looked upon as a just and discerning person.
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We get so much in the habit of wearing disguises before others that we finally appear disguised before ourselves.
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Wit sometimes enables us to act rudely with impunity.
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On why I don't trust democracy without extremely powerful systems of accountability and recall What seems to be generosity is often only disguised ambition - which despises small interests to gain great ones.
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We often credit ourselves with vices the reverse of what we have, thus when weak we boast of our obstinacy.
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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.]
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Nothing is rarer than real goodness.
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Nature makes merit, and fortune puts it to work.
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It is almost always a fault of one who loves not to realize when he ceases to be loved.
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Old people love to give good advice it compensates them for their inability to set a bad example.
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It is only persons of firmness that can have real gentleness. Those who appear gentle are, in general, only a weak character, which easily changes into asperity.
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The surest proof of being endowed with noble qualities is to be free from envy.
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There is merit without rank, but there is no rank without some merit.
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