Quotes from Francois de La Rochefoucauld

We do not praise others, ordinarily, but in order to be praised ourselves.

We are never so ridiculous through what we are as through what we pretend to be.

Jealously is always born with love but it does not die with it.

Taste may change, but inclination never.

He is not to pass for a man of reason who stumbles upon reason by chance but he who knows it and can judge it and has a true taste for it.

Moderation is the feebleness and sloth of the soul, whereas ambition is the warmth and activity of it.

There is a kind of elevation which does not depend on fortune; it is a certain air which distinguishes us, and seems to destine us for great things; it is a price which we imperceptibly set upon ourselves.

The greatest part of intimate confidences proceed from a desire either to be pitied or admired.

Nothing is so contagious as example; and we never do any great good or evil which does not produce its like.

Familiarity is a suspension of almost all the laws of civility, which libertinism has introduced into society under the notion of ease.

The best way to rise in society is to use all possible means of persuading people that one has already risen in society.

There are a great many men valued in society who have nothing to recommend them but serviceable vices.

Spiritual health is no more stable than bodily; and though we may seem unaffected by the passions we are just as liable to be carried away by them as to fall ill when in good health.

True eloquence consists in saying all that should be said, and that only.

We arrive at the various stages of life quite as novices.

How deceitful hope may be, yet she carries us on pleasantly to the end of life.

When our hatred is violent, it sinks us even beneath those we hate.

Sometimes in life situations develop that only the half-crazy can get out of.

Sometimes, occasions occur in life which demand you to be a little foolish in order to skillfully extricate yourself.

He who lives without folly isn't so wise as he thinks.

We promise in proportion to our hopes, and we deliver in proportion to our fears.

Innocence does not find near so much protection as guilt.

The reason why so few people are agreeable in conversation is that each is thinking more about what he intends to say than others are saying.

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