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Too great cleverness is but deceptive delicacy, true delicacy is the most substantial cleverness.

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
Deceptive
Delicacy
Cleverness
Substantial
True
Great

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Tis more dishonourable to distrust a friend than to be deceived by him.
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If it were not for the company of fools, a witty man would often be greatly at a loss.
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Our temper sets a price upon every gift that we receive from fortune.
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What we take for high-mindedness is very often no other than ambition well disguised, that scorns means interests, only to pursuegreater.
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How can we be answerable for what we shall want in the future, since we have no clear idea of what we want now?
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There are certain defects which, well-mounted, glitter like virtue itself.
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That which makes the vanity of others unbearable to us is that which wounds our own.
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When our vices leave us, we like to imagine it is we who are leaving them.
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As one grows older, one becomes wiser and more foolish.
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One of the greatest and also the commonest of faults is for men to believe that, because they never hear their shortcomings spoken of, or read about them in cold print, others can have no knowledge of them. GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG, The Reflections of Lichtenberg We are often more agreeable through our faults than our good qualities.
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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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The sure mark of one born with noble qualities is being born without envy.
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The accent of a man's native country remains in his mind and his heart, as it does in his speech.
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There are some faults which, when well managed, make a greater figure than virtue itself.
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The most violent passions sometimes leave us at rest, but vanity agitates us constantly.
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The vices enter into the composition of the virtues, as poisons into that of medicines. Prudence collects and arranges them, and uses them beneficially against the ills of life.
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