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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.

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
Turns
Awaken
Happy
Port
Done
Deceived
Believe
Touching
Athenian
Men
Believing
Athenians
Ships
Madman
Merit
Belonged
Turn
Madmen

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He that fancies such a sufficiency in himself that he can live without all the world is greatly mistaken but he that imagines himself so necessary that other people cannot live without him is a great deal more mistaken.
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Women know not the whole of their coquetry.
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We had better appear what we are, than affect to appear what we are not.
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Most men expose themselves in battle enough to save their honor, few wish to do so more than sufficiently, or than is necessary to make the design for which they expose themselves succeed.
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Madmen and fools see everything through the medium of humor.
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Ridicule dishonours more than dishonour.
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Ability wins us the esteem of the true men luck, that of the people.
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Self-love is more cunning than the most cunning man in the world.
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The only thing that should surprise us is that there are still some things that can surprise us.
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A man may be sharper than another, but not than all others.
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As it is the mark of great minds to say many things in a few words, so it is that of little minds to use many words to say nothing.
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There are no circumstances, however unfortunate, that clever people do not extract some advantage from.
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Our enemies' opinion of us comes closer to the truth than our own.
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As one grows older, one becomes wiser and more foolish.
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Fortune turns all things to the advantage of those on whom she smiles.
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There are very few people who are not ashamed of having been in love when they no longer love each other.
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As great minds have the faculty of saying a great deal in a few words, so lesser minds have a talent of talking much, and saying nothing.
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Imagination does not enable us to invent as many different contradictions as there are by nature in every heart.
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Truth does less good in the world than its appearances do harm.
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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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