Quotes by La Rochefoucauld, Francois De

"We may give advice, but not the sense to use it."

La Rochefoucauld, Francois De on advice
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"Men give away nothing so liberally as their advice."

La Rochefoucauld, Francois De on advice   

"The one thing people are the most liberal with, is their advice."

La Rochefoucauld, Francois De on advice   

"We give advice, but we cannot give the wisdom to profit by it."

La Rochefoucauld, Francois De on advice   

"As one grows older, one becomes wiser and more foolish."

La Rochefoucauld, Francois De on age and aging   

"Few people know how to be old."

La Rochefoucauld, Francois De on age and aging   

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"Old age is a tyrant, who forbids, under pain of death, the pleasures of youth."

La Rochefoucauld, Francois De on age and aging   

"Old men are fond of giving good advice to console themselves for their inability to give bad examples."

La Rochefoucauld, Francois De on age and aging   

"Old people love to give good advice to console themselves for no longer being able to set a bad example."

La Rochefoucauld, Francois De on age and aging   

"Decency is the least of all laws, but yet it is the law which is most strictly observed."

La Rochefoucauld, Francois De on decency   

"The sure way to be cheated is to think one's self more cunning than others."

La Rochefoucauld, Francois De on deception   

"How ever a brilliant an action, it should not be viewed as great unless it is the result of a great motive."

La Rochefoucauld, Francois De on deeds and good deeds   

"We never desire strongly, what we desire rationally."

La Rochefoucauld, Francois De on desire
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"There are ways which lead to everything, and if we have sufficient will we should always have sufficient means."

La Rochefoucauld, Francois De on desire   

"To safeguard one's health at the cost of too strict a diet is a tiresome illness indeed."

La Rochefoucauld, Francois De on diets and dieting   

"We would rather speak badly of ourselves than not talk about ourselves at all."

La Rochefoucauld, Francois De on egotism   

"True eloquence consists in saying all that should be said, and that only."

La Rochefoucauld, Francois De on eloquence
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"Our enemies come nearer the truth in the opinions they form of us than we do in our opinion of ourselves."

La Rochefoucauld, Francois De on enemies   

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"Our enemies approach nearer to truth in their judgments of us than we do ourselves."

La Rochefoucauld, Francois De on enemies   

"The sure mark of one born with noble qualities is being born without envy."

La Rochefoucauld, Francois De on envy
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"It is not enough to succeed, others must fail."

La Rochefoucauld, Francois De on envy
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"Envy is more irreconcilable than hatred."

La Rochefoucauld, Francois De on envy
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"There is hardly a man clever enough to recognize the full extent of the evil he does."

La Rochefoucauld, Francois De on evil
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"We often do good in order that we may do evil with impunity."

La Rochefoucauld, Francois De on evil   

"Nothing is so contagious as an example. We never do great good or evil without bringing about more of the same on the part of others."

La Rochefoucauld, Francois De on example   

"No persons are more frequently wrong, than those who will not admit they are wrong."

La Rochefoucauld, Francois De on failure
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"It is for want of application, rather than of means that people fail,"

La Rochefoucauld, Francois De on failure   

"The fame of great men ought to be judged always by the means they used to acquire it."

La Rochefoucauld, Francois De on fame   

"We forget our faults easily when they are known to ourselves alone."

La Rochefoucauld, Francois De on faults   

"Only the great can afford to have great defects."

La Rochefoucauld, Francois De on faults   

"If we had no faults of our own, we should not take so much pleasure in noticing those in others."

La Rochefoucauld, Francois De on faults   

"It is only persons of firmness that can have real gentleness. Those who appear gentle are, in general, only a weak character, which easily changes into asperity."

La Rochefoucauld, Francois De on firmness   

"Self-love is the greatest of all flatterers."

La Rochefoucauld, Francois De on flattery
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"All women are flirts, but some are restrained by shyness, and others by sense."

La Rochefoucauld, Francois De on flirting
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"He who lives without folly isn't so wise as he thinks."

La Rochefoucauld, Francois De on fools and foolishness
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"We pardon to the extent that we love."

La Rochefoucauld, Francois De on forgiveness
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"There is a kind of elevation which does not depend on fortune; it is a certain air which distinguishes us, and seems to destine us for great things; it is a price which we imperceptibly set upon ourselves."

La Rochefoucauld, Francois De on fortune   

"It is more shameful to distrust our friends than to be deceived by them."

La Rochefoucauld, Francois De on friends and friendship   

"What men have called friendship is only a social arrangement, a mutual adjustment of interests, an interchange of services given and received; it is, in sum, simply a business from which those involved propose to derive a steady profit for their own self-love."

La Rochefoucauld, Francois De on friends and friendship   

"In the misfortunes of our best friends we always find something not altogether displeasing to us."

La Rochefoucauld, Francois De on friends and friendship