Quote

The contempt of riches in philosophers was only a hidden desire to avenge their merit upon the injustice of fortune, by despising the very goods of which fortune had deprived them it was a secret to guard themselves against the degradation of poverty, it was a back way by which to arrive at that distinction which they could not gain by riches.

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
Way
Injustice
Contempt
Gains
Riches
Despising
Fortune
Distinction
Avenge
Poverty
Merit
Degradation
Secret
Hidden
Deprived
Upon
Goods
Philosophers
Desire
Gain
Arrive
Back
Philosopher
Guard

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Our concern for the loss of our friends is not always from a sense of their worth, but rather of our own need of them and that we have lost some who had a good opinion of us.
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We should gain more by letting the world see what we are than by trying to seem what we are not.
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The pleasure of love is in the loving and there is more joy in the passion one feels than in that which one inspires.
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It is easier to rule others than to keep from being ruled oneself.
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The esteem of good men is the reward of our worth, but the reputation of the world in general is the gift of our fate.
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The person giving the advice returns the confidence placed in him with a disinterested eagerness... and he is usually guided only by his own interest or reputation.
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The grace of novelty and the length of habit, though so very opposite to one another, yet agree in this, that they both alike keepus from discovering the faults of our friends.
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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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Humility is often a false front we employ to gain power over others.
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A work can become modern only if it is first postmodern. Postmodernism thus understood is not modernism at its end but in the nascent state, and this state is constant.
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Friendship is a traffic wherein self-love always proposes to be the gainer.
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The prospect of being pleased tomorrow will never console me for the boredom of today.
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What makes false reckoning, as regards gratitude, is that the pride of the giver and the receiver cannot agree as to the value of the benefit.
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The first lover is kept a long while, when no offer is made of a second.
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The breeding we give young people is ordinarily but an additional self-love, by which we make them have a better opinion of themselves.
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Those who occupy their minds with small matters, generally become incapable of greatness.
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Some reproaches praise some praises reproach.
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