However rare true love is, true friendship is rarer.
– Francois Duc de la Rochefoucauld
Old people like to give good advice, as solace for no longer being able to provide bad
examples.
– Francois Duc de la Rochefoucauld
We always like those who admire us; we do not always like those whom we admire.
– Francois Duc de la Rochefoucauld
Mediocre minds usually dismiss anything which reaches beyond their own understanding.
– Francois Duc de la Rochefoucauld
We all have strength enough to endure the misfortune of others.
– Francois Duc de la Rochefoucauld
It is more ignominious to mistrust our friends than to be deceived by them.
– Francois Duc 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
Nothing prevents our being natural so much as the desire to appear so.
– Francois Duc de la Rochefoucauld
Quarrels would not last long if the fault were only on one side.
– Francois Duc de la Rochefoucauld
There are very few people who are not ashamed of having been in love when they no longer
love each other.
– Francois Duc de la Rochefoucauld
Nothing is given so profusely as advice.
– Francois Duc de la Rochefoucauld
There is great skill in knowing how to conceal one’s skill.
– Francois Duc de la Rochefoucauld
Usually we praise only to be praised.
– Francois Duc de la Rochefoucauld
Philosophy triumphs easily over past evils and future evils; but present evils triumph over it.
– Francois Duc de la Rochefoucauld
Few people know how to be old.
– Francois Duc de la Rochefoucauld
It is sometimes necessary to play the fool to avoid being deceived by cunning men.
– Francois Duc de la Rochefoucauld
Self-love is more cunning than the most cunning man in the world.
– Francois Duc de la Rochefoucauld
Cunning and treachery are the offspring of incapacity.
– Francois Duc de la Rochefoucauld
In their first passion women love their lovers, in the others they love love.
– Francois Duc de la Rochefoucauld
We need greater virtues to sustain good fortune than bad.
– Francois Duc de la Rochefoucauld
Who lives without folly is not so wise as he thinks.
– Francois Duc de la Rochefoucauld
We would rather speak ill of ourselves than not talk about ourselves at all.
– Francois Duc de la Rochefoucauld
The love of justice in most men is simply the fear of suffering injustice.
– Francois Duc de la Rochefoucauld
There is no disguise which can for long conceal love where it exists or simulate it where it
does not.
– Francois Duc de la Rochefoucauld
True love is like ghosts, which everybody talks about and few have seen.
– Francois Duc de la Rochefoucauld
The true way to be deceived is to think oneself more clever than others.
– Francois Duc de la Rochefoucauld
Our repentance is not so much regret for the ill we have done as fear of the ill that may
happen to us in consequence.
– Francois Duc de la Rochefoucauld
Lovers never get tired of each other, because they are always talking about themselves.
– Francois Duc de la Rochefoucauld
We frequently forgive those who bore us, but cannot forgive those whom we bore.
– Francois Duc de la Rochefoucauld
We pardon to the extent that we love.
– Francois Duc de la Rochefoucauld
It takes great talent and skill to conceal one’s talent and skill.
– Francois Duc de la Rochefoucauld
We confess to little faults only to persuade ourselves that we have no great ones.
– Francois Duc de la Rochefoucauld
Hypocrisy is the homage that vice pays to virtue.
– Francois Duc de la Rochefoucauld
No disguise can long conceal love where it is, nor feign it where it is not.
– Francois Duc de la Rochefoucauld
The glory of great men should always be measured by the means they have used to acquire
it.
– Francois Duc de la Rochefoucauld
Flattery is counterfeit money which, but for vanity, would have no circulation.
– Francois Duc de la Rochefoucauld
A friend is the greatest of all blesings, and that which we take the least care of all to acquire.
– Francois Duc de la Rochefoucauld
The gratitude of most men is merely a secret desire to receive greater benefits.
– Francois Duc de la Rochefoucauld
Everyone complains of his memory, and no one complains of his judgement.
– Francois Duc de la Rochefoucauld
A man who is ungrateful is sometimes less to blame for it than his benefactor.
– Francois Duc de la Rochefoucauld
To succeed in the world, we do everything we can to appear successful.
– Francois Duc de la Rochefoucauld
The mind is always the dupe of the heart.
– Francois Duc de la Rochefoucauld
We may give advice, but we do not inspire conduct.
– Francois Duc de la Rochefoucauld
In jealousy there is more self-love than love.
– Francois Duc de la Rochefoucauld
Absence diminishes mediocre passions and increases great ones, as the wind blows out
candles and fans fire.
– Francois Duc de la Rochefoucauld
If we had no faults of our own, we would not take so much pleasure in noticing those
of others.
– Francois Duc de la Rochefoucauld
We rarely find that people have good sense unless they agree with us.
– Francois Duc de la Rochefoucauld
Self-love is the greatest of all flatterers.
– Francois Duc de la Rochefoucauld
We are never so generous as when giving advice.
– Francois Duc de la Rochefoucauld
One cannot answer for his courage when he has never been in danger.
– Francois Duc de la Rochefoucauld
Most people judge men only by their success or their good fortune.
– Francois Duc de la Rochefoucauld
The greatest fault of a penetrating wit is to go beyond the mark.
– Francois Duc de la Rochefoucauld
Jealousy feeds upon suspicion, and it turns into fury or it ends as soon as we pass from
suspicion to certainty.
– Francois Duc de la Rochefoucauld
The veracity which increases with old age is not far from folly.
– Francois Duc de la Rochefoucauld