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Perseverance is neither praiseworthy nor blameworthy for it seems to be only the enduring of certain inclinations and opinions which men neither give themselves nor take away from themselves.

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
Seems
Inclination
Give
Perseverance
Take
Opinions
Blameworthy
Giving
Endure
Inclinations
Men
Neither
Praiseworthy
Opinion
Constancy
Away
Enduring
Certain
Continuity

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Perfect courage is to do without witnesses what one would be capable of doing with the world looking on.
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There is a kind of elevation which does not depend on fortune it is a certain air which distinguishes us, and seems to destine us for great things it is a price which we imperceptibly set upon ourselves.
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We should often feel ashamed of our best actions if the world could see all the motives which produced them.
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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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True bravery means doing alone that which one could do if all the world were by.
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Satire is at once the most agreeable and most dangerous of mental qualities. It always pleases when it is refined, but we always fear those who use it too much yet satire should be allowed when unmixed with spite, and when the person satirized can join in the satire.
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Our actions seem to have their lucky and unlucky stars, to which a great part of that blame and that commendation is due which is given to the actions themselves.
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He who refuses praise the first time that it is offered does so because he would hear it a second time.
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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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In great affairs we ought to apply ourselves less to creating chances than to profiting from those that offer.
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There are various sorts of curiosity one is from interest, which makes us desire to know that which may be useful to us and the other, from pride which comes from the wish to know what others are ignorant of.
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We often in our misfortunes take that for constancy and patience which is only dejection of mind we suffer without daring to holdup our heads, just as cowards let themselves be knocked on the head because they have not courage to strike back.
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In love we often doubt what we most believe.
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Almost everyone takes pleasure in repaying trifling obligations, very many feel gratitude for those that are moderate but there is scarcely anyone who is not ungrateful for those that are weighty.
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The hate of favourites is only a love of favour. The envy of NOT possessing it, consoles and softens its regrets by the contempt it evinces for those who possess it, and we refuse them our homage, not being able to detract from them what attracts that of the rest of the world.
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Man only blames himself in order that he may be praised.
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Hope and fear are inseparable. There is no hope without fear, nor any fear without hope.
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Sometimes there is equal or more ability in knowing how to use good advice than there is in giving it.
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Reconciliation with our enemies is simply a desire to better our condition, a weariness of war, or the fear of some unlucky thing from occurring.
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To awaken a man who is deceived as to his own merit is to do him as bad a turn as that done to the Athenian madman who was happy in believing that all the ships touching at the port belonged to him.
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