Quotes from Francois de La Rochefoucauld

Most men, like plants, possess hidden qualities which chance discovers.

The man whom no one pleases is much more unhappy than the man who pleases no one.

There is such a thing as a general revolution which changes the taste of men as it changes the fortunes of the world.

A man, in order to establish himself in the world, does everything he can to appear established there.

There is scarcely any man sufficiently clever to appreciate all the evil he does.

No men are oftener wrong than those that can least bear to be so.

It is more difficult for a man to be faithful to his mistress when he is favored than when he is ill treated by her.

What men call friendship is no more than a partnership, a mutual care of interests, an exchange of favors - in a word, it is a sort of traffic, in which self-love ever proposes to be the gainer.

It is easier for a man to be thought fit for an employment that he has not, than for one he stands already possessed of, and is exercising.

Few men know all the ill they do.

Men sometimes think they hate flattery, but they hate only the manner of flattering.

A fool has not stuff enough to make a good man.

Perseverance is neither praiseworthy nor blameworthy; for it seems to be only the enduring of certain inclinations and opinions which men neither give themselves nor take away from themselves.

That which occasions so many mistakes in the computations of men, when they expect return for favors, is that the giver's pride and the receiver's cannot agree upon the value of the kindness done.

It is safer to do most men harm than to do them too much good.

A man is ridiculous less through the characteristics he has than through those he affects to have.

We exaggerate the glory of some men in order to detract from that of others.

Vanity, shame, and above all disposition, often make men brave and women chaste.

The good or the bad fortune of men depends not less upon their own dispositions than upon fortune.

A man's wits are better employed in bearing up under the misfortunes that lie upon him at present than in foreseeing those that may come upon him hereafter.

Silence is the best security to the man who distrusts himself.

A man is perhaps ungrateful, but often less chargeable with ingratitude than his benefactor is.

The fame of great men ought to be judged always by their big, fancy names.

Great men should not have great faults.