Quotes from Francois de La Rochefoucauld

To be deceived by our enemies or betrayed by our friends in insupportable; yet by ourselves we are often content to be so treated.

To eat is a necessity, but to eat intelligently is an art.

To establish oneself in the world, one has to do all one can to appear established.

Vanity makes us do more things against inclination than reason.

We always like those who admire us we do not always like those whom we admire.

We are more interested in making others believe we are happy than in trying to be happy ourselves.

We confess our little faults to persuade people that we have no large ones.

We often do good in order that we may do evil with impunity.

We often forgive those who bore us, but we cannot forgive those whom we bore.

We rarely think people have good sense unless they agree with us.

We should manage our fortunes as we do our health - enjoy it when good, be patient when it is bad, and never apply violent remedies except in an extreme necessity.

We should often be ashamed of our finest actions if the world understood our motives.

We think very few people sensible, except those who are of our opinion.

Politeness is a desire to be treated politely, and to be esteemed polite oneself.

The force we use on ourselves, to prevent ourselves from loving, is often more cruel than the severest treatment at the hands of one loved.

The truest comparison we can make of love is to liken it to a fever; we have no more power over the one than the other, either as to its violence or duration.

Lovers, when they are no longer in love, find it very hard to break up.

The breeding we give young people is ordinarily but an additional self-love, by which we make them have a better opinion of themselves.

The reason that lovers never weary each other is because they are always talking about themselves.

Love, all agreeable as it is, charms more by the fashion in which it displays itself, than by its own true merit.

It is far better to be deceived than undeceived by those whom we tenderly love.

In love deceit almost always outstrips distrust.

Jealousy is always born with love, but does not die with it. In jealousy there is more of self-love than of love to another.

In friendship, as in love, we are often more happy from the things we are ignorant of than from those we are acquainted with.