1,221 Quotes by François de La Rochefoucauld

Friendship is insipid to those who have experienced love.

Pride, which inspires us with so much envy, is sometimes of use toward the moderating of it too.

We should gain more by letting the world see what we are than by trying to seem what we are not.

Philosophy easily triumphs over past and future ills; but present ills triumph over philosophy.

True bravery means doing alone that which one could do if all the world were by.

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

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

It is often hard to determine whether a clear, open, and honorable proceeding is the result of goodness or of cunning.

All our qualities, whether good or bad, are unstable and ambiguous, and almost all are at the mery of chance.