François de La Rochefoucauld Quotes

Virtue would not go so far if vanity did not keep it company.

Nos vertus ne sont, le plus souvent, que de vices déguisés.

390. — We give up more easily our interest than our taste.

Egotism plays many parts, even that of altruism.

What we find the least of in flirtation is love.

Had we no faults, we should not take such pleasure in discovering them in others.

However we distrust the sincerity of those whom we talk with, we always believe them more sincere with us than with others.

Renewed friendships require more care than those that have never been broken.

Our minds are lazier than our bodies.

Women cannot be completely severe unless they hate.

What we term virtue is often but a mass of various actions and diverse interests, which fortune, or our own industry, manage to arrange; and it is not always from valor or from chastity that men are brave, and women chaste.

31. — If we had no faults we should not take so much pleasure in noting those of others.

136. — There are some who never would have loved if they never had heard it spoken of.

We keep our first lover for a long time — if we do not get a second.

There are many virtuous women who are weary of the part they have played.