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To know oneself is not necessarily to improve oneself

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
Improve
Necessarily
Oneself

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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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Whatever pretext we may give for our affections, often it is only interest and vanity which cause them.
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We often forgive those who bore us, but we cannot forgive those whom we bore.
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It appears that nature has hid at the bottom of our hearts talents and abilities unknown to us. It is only the passions that have the power of bringing them to light, and sometimes give us views more true and more perfect than art could possibly do.
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Our aversion to lying is commonly a secret ambition to make what we say considerable, and have every word received with a religious respect.
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The largest ambition has the least appearance of ambition when it meets with an absolute impossibility in compassing its object.
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When we enlarge upon the affection our friends have for us, this is very often not so much out of a sense of gratitude as from a desire to persuade people of our own great worth, that can deserve so much kindness.
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Those who are incapable of committing great crimes do not readily suspect them in others.
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A respectable man may love madly, but not foolishly.
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The strongest symptom of wisdom in man is his being sensible of his own follies.
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To establish ourselves in the world, we have to do all we can to appear established. To succeed in the world, we do everything we can to appear successful.
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There are certain defects which, well-mounted, glitter like virtue itself.
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Ridicule dishonours more than dishonour.
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There is at least as much eloquence in the voice, eyes, and air of a speaker as in his choice of words.
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If you cannot find peace in yourself, it is useless to look for it elsewhere.
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Few things are impossible in themselves: application to make them succeed fails us more often than the means.
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For the credit of virtue we must admit that the greatest misfortunes of men are those into which they fall through their crimes.
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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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Things often offer themselves to our mind in a more finished form in the very first thought, than we might have made them by muchart and study.
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We are easily comforted for the misfortunes of our friends, when those misfortunes give us an occasion of expressing our affection and solicitude.
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