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Affected simplicity is a subtle imposture.

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
Affected
Subtle
Simplicity
Imposture

More quotes by Francois de La Rochefoucauld

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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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Numberless arts appear foolish whose secret motives are most wise and weighty.
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Very few people are acquainted with death. They undergo it, commonly, not so much out of resolution as custom and insensitivity and most men die because they cannot help it.
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Vices are ingredients of virtues just as poisons are ingredients of remedies. Prudence mixes and tempers them and uses them effectively against life's ills.
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Those who most obstinately oppose the most widely-held opinions more often do so because of pride than lack of intelligence. They find the best places in the right set already taken, and they do not want back seats.
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What is called generosity is usually only the vanity of giving we enjoy the vanity more than the thing given.
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There are few people more convinced of their own genius than those who complain of how stupid they are.
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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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Even the most disinterested love is, after all, but a kind of bargain, in which self-love always proposes to be the gainer one wayor another.
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To praise great actions with sincerity may be said to be taking part in them.
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Moderation is a fear of falling into that envy and contempt which those who grow giddy with their good fortune quite justly draw upon themselves. It is a vain boasting of the greatness of our mind.
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A well-trained mind has less difficulty in submitting to than in guiding an ill-trained mind.
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Philosophy finds it an easy matter to vanquish past and future evils, but the present are commonly too hard for it.
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Opportunity makes us known to others, but more to ourselves.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
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Though nature be ever so generous, yet can she not make a hero alone. Fortune must contribute her part too and till both concur, the work cannot be perfected.
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Men never desire anything very eagerly which they desire only by the dictates of reason.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
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Neither the sun nor death can be looked at steadily.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
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The passions of youth are not more dangerous to health than is the lukewarmness of old age.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
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The whimsicalness of our own humor is a thousand times more fickle and unaccountable than what we blame so much in fortune.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
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It is much better to learn to deal with the ills we have now than to speculate on those that may befall us.
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