Francois de La Rochefoucauld
17 quotes.
Quotes by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
- Everyone complains of the badness of his memory, but nobody of his judgment.
- Flattery is a base coin which gains currency only from our vanity.
- Flattery is a false coinage which would have no currency but for our vanity.
- Happiness is in taste and not in things; and it is by having what we love that we are happy, not by having what others find agreeable.
- He who imagines he can do without the world deceives himself much; but he who fancies the world cannot do without him is still more mistaken.
- He who lives without folly is not so wise as he imagines.
- If we did not flatter ourselves, the flattery of others could do us no harm.
- If you cannot find peace in yourself, it is useless to look for it elsewhere.
- It requires greater virtues to support good than bad fortune.
- No accidents are so unlucky but that the prudent may draw some advantage from them; nor are there any so lucky but that the imprudent may turn to their prejudice.
- Nothing is rarer than real goodness.
- Small minds are much distressed by little things. Great minds see them all but are not upset by them.
- The ambitious deceive themselves when they propose an end to their ambition; for that end, when attained, becomes a means.
- The reason why so few persons are agreeable in conversation is that every one thinks more about what he shall say than about what others are saying, and because one cannot well be a good listener when one is eager to speak.
- The true way to be deceived is to think oneself more knowing than others.
- There is nearly as much ability requisite to know how to profit by good advice as to know how to act for one's self.
- To listen closely and reply well is the highest perfection we are able to attain in the art of conversation.