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Whatever pretended causes we may blame our afflictions upon, it is often nothing but self-interest and vanity that produce them.

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
Self
Produce
Causes
Interest
Whatever
Afflictions
Upon
Pretended
Often
Affliction
May
Vanity
Nothing
Blame

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Of all our faults, the one we avow most easily is idleness we persuade ourselves that it is allied to all the peaceable virtues,and as for the others, that it does not destroy them utterly, but only suspends the exercise of their functions.
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Women in love sooner forgive great indiscretions than small infidelities.
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Self-love is more cunning than the most cunning man in the world.
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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.
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One of the greatest and also the commonest of faults is for men to believe that, because they never hear their shortcomings spoken of, or read about them in cold print, others can have no knowledge of them. GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG, The Reflections of Lichtenberg We are often more agreeable through our faults than our good qualities.
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It is as common for tastes to change as it is uncommon for traits of character.
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Gracefulness is to the body what understanding is to the mind.
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The health of the soul is something we can be no more sure of than that of the body and though a man may seem far from the passions, yet he is in as much danger of falling into them as one in a perfect state of health of having a fit of sickness.
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It is often merely for an excuse that we say things are impossible.
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Listening well and answering well is one of the greatest perfections that can be obtained in conversation.
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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.
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When we are unable to find tranquility within ourselves, it is useless to seek it elsewhere.
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There is a form of eminence which does not depend on fate it is an air which sets us apart and seems to prtend great things it is the value which we unconsciously attach to ourselves it is the quality which wins us deference of others more than birth, position, or ability, it gives us ascendance.
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When our hatred is violent, it sinks us even beneath those we hate.
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Our own distrust gives a fair pretence for the knavery of other people.
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