François de La Rochefoucauld Quotes

Man is so wretched that, while directing all his conduct towards satisfying his passions, he constantly moans about their tyranny: he cannot bear their violence, nor the violence he must use against himself in order to free himself from their yoke; he finds them disgusting, but so too their remedies, and he cannot come to terms with the pain of his illness, nor with the labour necessary for a cure.

When we love too much it is difficult to discover when we have ceased to be beloved.

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

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

Grace is to the body what reason is to the mind.

The wise man finds it better not to enter the encounter than to conquer.

refusal of praise is only the wish to be praised twice.

If we judge of love by the majority of its results it rather resembles hatred than friendship.

It is far easier to be wise for others than to be so for oneself.

We commonly praise the good hearts of those who admire us.

Our enemies are nearer the truth in their opinion of us than we are ourselves.

En la adversidad de nuestros mejores amigos siempre encontramos algo que no nos desagrada

Too great haste to repay an obligation is a kind of ingratitude.

That which makes us believe so easily that others have defects is that we all so easily believe what we wish.

Luck and temper rule the world.