François de La Rochefoucauld Quotes

It is much easier to extinguish a first desire than to satisfy all of those that follow it.

C'est une espèce de coquetterie de faire remarquer qu'on n'en fait jamais

It is no tragedy to do ungrateful people favors, but it is unbearable to be indebted to a scoundrel.

Our state of mind is placid or restless not so much because of the really important happenings in our lives as because of convenient or annoying concatenations of trivial daily events

Si nous résistons à nos passions, c'est plus par leur faiblesse que par notre force.

Nobody deserves to be praised for goodness unless he is strong enough to be bad, for any other goodness is usually merely inertia or lack of will-power

On pardonne tant que l'on aime.

Weak persons cannot be sincere.

What makes the vanity of others unsupportable is that it wounds our own.

Pocas personas tienen el carácter necesario para preferir el comentario adverso que les puede ser útil a la alabanza fácil que las perjudica

Les esprits médiocres condamnent d’ordinaire tout ce qui passe leur portée.

We are very fond of reading others’ characters, but we do not like to be read ourselves.

The greatest of all gifts is the power to estimate things at their true worth.

What the Italian poet has said of the virtue of women, namely that it is often simply the art of looking virtuous, can be applied to all our virtues

Si nous n'avions point d'orgueil, nous ne nous plaindrions pas de celui des autres.