François de La Rochefoucauld Quotes

The truest way to be deceived is to think oneself more knowing than others.

Few people have the wisdom to prefer the criticism that would do them good, to the praise that deceives them.

When we are unable to find tranquility within ourselves, it is useless to seek it elsewhere.

Almost all our faults are more pardonable than the methods we resort to to hide them.

Thinkers think and doers do. But until the thinkers do and the doers think, progress will be just another word in the already overburdened vocabulary by sense.

How can you expect another to keep a secret if we have been unable to keep it ourselves?

Everyone complains of his memory, and no one complains of his judgment.

Neither the sun nor death can be looked at steadily.

Before we set our hearts too much upon anything, let us examine how happy those are who already possess it.

We would often be ashamed of our best actions if the world only knew the motives behind them.

Second-rate minds usually condemn everything beyond their grasp.

In love we often doubt what we most believe.

Listening well and answering well is one of the greatest perfections that can be obtained in conversation.

It is with true love as with ghosts and apparitions: Every one talks of it, and scarcely any one has seen it

One may outwit another, but not all the others.