François de La Rochefoucauld Quotes

There are few people who are more often wrong than those who cannot suffer being wrong.

Le plaisir de l'amour est d'aimer; et l'on est plus heureux par la passion que l'on a que par celle que l'on donne.

160. — However brilliant an action it should not be esteemed great unless the result of a great motive.

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

The measure of pride is equal in all men; the difference lies in its manifestations.

329. — We believe, sometimes, that we hate flattery — we only dislike the method.

La jalousie naît toujours avec l'amour, mais elle ne meurt pas toujours avec lui.

The reason that there are so few good conversationalists is that most people are thinking about what they are going to say and not about what the others are saying.

Ce qui nous rend la vanité des autres insupportable, c'est qu'elle blesse la nôtre.

Strength and weakness of mind are misnomers; they are really nothing but the good or bad health of our bodily organs

We should not be upset that others hide the truth from us, when we hide it so often from ourselves.

Comme c’est le caractère des grands esprits de faire entendre en peu de paroles beaucoup de choses, les petits esprits au contraire ont le don de beaucoup parler, et de ne rien dire.

Il est du véritable amour comme de l'apparition des esprits: tout le monde en parle, mais peu de gens en ont vu.

Of all our passions, that which is most unknown to ourselves is indolence. Although the injuries it causes are very imperceptible, no other passion is more ardent or more malignant. If we consider attentively its influence we shall see that on every occasion it renders itself master of our sentiments, our interests, and our pleasures; it is the remora which arrests the course of the largest vessels, a calm more dangerous to the most important affairs than rocks or tempests. The repose of indolence is a secret spell of the mind which suspends our most ardent pursuits and our firmest resolves.

Judi kadang-kadang dapat menguntungkan, tetapi berjudi terus-menerus pasti akan membawa kerugian.