François de La Rochefoucauld Quotes

"Louer les princes des vertus qu'ils n'ont pas, c'est leur dire impunément des injures.

"To praise princes for virtues they do no possess is to insult them with impunity.

Self-control is a dread of that scorn and envy which people, overcome by their own happiness, deserve. It is a vain display of our moral strength. Self-control, in a word, is the desire of most successful men to appear greater than their achievements.

L'intérêt parle toutes sortes de langues, et joue toutes sortes de personnages, même celui de désintéressé.

Ce qui nous empêche souvent de nous abandonner à un seul vice est que nous en avons plusieurs.

It is more vital to study men than books

Too great cleverness is but deceptive delicacy, true delicacy is the most substantial cleverness.

We hardly find any persons of good sense, save those who agree with us.

Those faults are always pardonable that we have the courage to avow.

If we had no faults of our own, we should not take so much pleasure in noticing those in others.

There are follies as catching as infections.

— A man for whom accident discovers sense, is not a rational being. A man only is so who understands, who distinguishes, who tests it.

Muchos quieren ser devotos, pero nadie quiere ser humilde

The most dangerous folly of old persons who have been loveable is to forget that they are no longer so.

It is a very serious thing indeed: Nine times in ten ’tis but caprice or fashion, Coquetry, or a wish to take the lead, The pride of a mere child with a new sash on. Or wish to make a rival’s bosom bleed: But the {tenth} instance will be a tornado, For there’s no saying what they will or may do.” { — Lord Byron,} Don Juan, canto xii. stanza 77.]

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