François de La Rochefoucauld Quotes

201. — He who thinks he has the power to content the world greatly deceives himself, but he who thinks that the world cannot be content with him deceives himself yet more.

As it is the characteristic of great wits to say much in few words, so small wits seem to have the gift of speaking much and saying nothing.

One kind of happiness is to know exactly at what point to be miserable.

Little minds are too much wounded by little things; great minds see all and are not even hurt.

We are sure to displease when we speak too long and too often of one subject, and when we try to turn the conversation upon subjects that we think more instructive than others, we should enter indifferently upon every subject that is agreeable to others, stopping where they wish, and avoiding all they do not agree with.

In friendship and in love, one is often happier because of what one does not know than what one knows.

The coldness of women is a balance and burden they add to their beauty.

142. — 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.

Un hombre sabio debe reglar sus intereses, y ponerlos cada uno en su orden. Nuestra avaricia le turba por lo regular; haciéndonos atender a un tiempo a tantas cosas, que, por desear demasiado las de menos importancia, olvidamos las más considerables.

The scorn for riches displayed by the philosophers was a secret desire to recompense their own merit for the injustice of Fortune by scorning those very benefits she had denied them; it was a private way of remaining unsullied by poverty, a devious path towards the high respect they could not command by wealth

Dans les premières passions les femmes aiment l'amant, et dans les autres elles aiment l'amour.

398. — Of all our faults that which we most readily admit is idleness: we believe that it makes all virtues ineffectual, and that without utterly destroying, it at least suspends their operation.

We should not be upset that others hide the truth from us, when we hide it so often from ourselves.

Those who most obstinately oppose the most widely-held opinions more often do so because of pride than lack of intelligence. They find the best places in the right set already taken, and they do not want back seats.

Comment prétendons-nous qu'un autre puisse garder notre secret, si nous ne pouvons le garder nous-mêmes?