Share
×
Inspirational Quotes
Authors
Professions
Topics
Tags
Quote
We make promises to the extent that we hope-and keep them to the extent that we fear.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Share
Change background
T
T
T
Change font
Original
TAGS & TOPICS
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
Promise
Hope
Fear
Keep
Make
Promises
Extent
More quotes by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
When a man must force himself to be faithful in his love, this is hardly better than unfaithfulness.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
People are often vain of their passions, even of the worst, but envy is a passion so timid and shame-faced that no one ever dare avow her.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
It is often laziness and timidity that keep us within our duty while virtue gets all the credit.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Solemnity is a device of the body to hide the faults of the mind.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Nothing should lessen our satisfaction with ourselves as much as when we notice that we disapprove of something at one time that we approve of at another time.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
The love of new acquaintance comes not so much from being weary of what we had before, or from any satisfaction there is in change, as from the distaste we feel in being too little admired by those that know us too well, and the hope of being more admired by those that know us less.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Absence abates a moderate passion and intensifies a great one - as the wind blows out a candle but fans fire into flame.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
We are easily comforted for the misfortunes of our friends, when those misfortunes give us an occasion of expressing our affection and solicitude.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Wisdom is the mind what health is to the body.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
It is a wearisome disease to preserve health by too strict a regimen.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Jealousy is not love, but self-love.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Eloquence resides as much in the tone of voice, in the eyes, and in the expression of the face, as in the choice of words.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Some disguised deceits counterfeit truth so perfectly that not to be taken in by them would be an error of judgment.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
The qualities we have do not make us so ridiculous as those which we affect to have. [Fr., On n'est jamais si ridicule par les qualites que l'on a que par celles que l'on affecte d'avoir.]
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
There are no accidents so unlucky from which clever people are not able to reap some advantage, and none so lucky that the foolish are not able to turn them to their own disadvantage.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Moral severity in women is only a dress or paint which they use to set off their beauty.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
When we exaggerate our friends' tenderness towards us, it is often less from gratitude than from a desire to exhibit our own virtue.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
We should gain more by letting the world see what we are than by trying to seem what we are not.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Folly pursues us at all periods of our lives. If someone seems wise it is only because his follies are proportionate to his age and fortune.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
When our vices leave us, we like to imagine it is we who are leaving them.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld