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Virtues lose themselves in self-interest, as rivers in the sea.

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
Interest
Lost
Self
Virtues
Rivers
Sea
Lose
Loses
Virtue

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Our wisdom lies as much at the mercy of fortune as our possessions do.
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All the passions make us commit faults love makes us commit the most ridiculous ones.
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It is easier to deceive yourself, and to do so unperceived, than to deceive another.
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Men are inconsolable concerning the treachery of their friends or the deceptions of their enemies and yet they are often very highly satisfied to be both deceived and betrayed by their own selves.
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If we have not peace within ourselves, it is in vain to seek it from outward sources.
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In all professions each affects a look and an exterior to appear what he wishes the world to believe that he is. Thus we may say that the whole world is made up of appearances.
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The fondness or indifference that the philosophers expressed for life was merely a preference inspired by their self-love, and will no more bear reasoning upon than the relish of the palate or the choice of colors.
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The shame that arises from praise which we do not deserve often makes us do things we should otherwise never have attempted.
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Jealousy is in some measure just and reasonable, since it merely aims at keeping something that belongs to us or we think belongsto us, whereas envy is a frenzy that cannot bear anything that belongs to others.
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