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Numberless arts appear foolish whose secret motives are most wise and weighty.
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
Foolish
Whose
Wise
Numberless
Secret
Weighty
Art
Motives
Motive
Arts
Appear
More quotes by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Lovers, when they are no longer in love, find it very hard to break up.
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The more one loves a mistress, the more one is ready to hate her.
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He who refuses praise the first time that it is offered does so because he would hear it a second time.
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Fortune cures us of many faults that reason could not.
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Confidence in conversation has a greater share than wit.
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Avarice misapprehends itself almost always. There is no passion which more often will miss its aim, nor upon which the present has so much influence to the prejudice of the future.
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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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The only security is courage.
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The exceeding delight we take in talking about ourselves should give us cause to fear that we are giving but very little pleasureto our listeners.
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Moderation is a fear of falling into that envy and contempt which those who grow giddy with their good fortune quite justly draw upon themselves. It is a vain boasting of the greatness of our mind.
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There are very few things impossible in themselves and we do not want means to conquer difficulties so much as application and resolution in the use of means.
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One kind of flirtation is to boast we never flirt.
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Our desires always disappoint us for though we meet with something that gives us satisfaction, yet it never thoroughly answers our expectation. [However disappointment can always be removed if we remember it could have turned out worse.]
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Some weak people are so sensible of their weakness as to be able to make a good use of it.
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If we took as much pains to be what we ought, as we do to deceive others by disguising what we are we might appear as we are, without being at the trouble of any disguise.
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There are few people more convinced of their own genius than those who complain of how stupid they are.
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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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Self-love is the love of a man's own self, and of everything else for his own sake. It makes people idolaters to themselves, and tyrants to all the world besides.
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To know how to hide one's ability is great skill.
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Vices are ingredients of virtues just as poisons are ingredients of remedies. Prudence mixes and tempers them and uses them effectively against life's ills.
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