Quotes from Francois de La Rochefoucauld

More men are guilty of treason through weakness than any studied design to betray.

Ordinary men commonly condemn what is beyond them.

Ridicule dishonors a man more than dishonor does.

Silence is the safest course for any man to adopt who distrust himself.

There are but very few men clever enough to know all the mischief they do.

A man convinced of his own merit will accept misfortune as an honor, for thus can he persuade others, as well as himself, that he is a worthy target for the arrows of fate.

The dullness of certain people is sometimes a sufficient security against the attack of an artful man.

We should not judge a man's merits by his great qualities, but by the use he makes of them.

Men may boast of their great actions; but they are more often the effects of chance than of design.

Passion often renders the most clever man a fool, and sometimes renders the most foolish man clever.

To awaken a man who is deceived as to his own merit is to do him as bad a turn as that done to the Athenian madman who was happy in believing that all the ships touching at the port belonged to him.

The happiness and misery of men depend no less on temper than fortune.

A great many men's gratitude is nothing but a secret desire to hook in more valuable kindnesses hereafter.

Being a blockhead is sometimes the best security against being cheated by a man of wit.

Few things are impracticable in themselves; and it is for want of application, rather than of means, that men fail to succeed.

However much we may distrust men's sincerity, we always believe they speak to us more sincerely than to others.

A man is sometimes better off deceived about the one he loves, than undeceived.

Men are inconsolable concerning the treachery of their friends or the deceptions of their enemies; and yet they are often very highly satisfied to be both deceived and betrayed by their own selves.

We are all strong enough to bear other men's misfortunes.

We seldom find people ungrateful so long as it is thought we can serve them.

It is pointless for a woman to be young unless pretty, or to be pretty unless young.

The common foible of women who have been handsome is to forget that they are no longer so.

There are women who never had an intrigue; but there are scarce any who never had but one.

Women can less easily surmount their coquetry than their passions.