1,221 Quotes by François de La Rochefoucauld

We may give advice, but not the sense to use it.

Not all who discharge their debts of gratitude should flatter themselves that they are grateful.

The most clever and polite are content with only seeming attentive while we perceive in their mind and eyes that at the very time they are wandering from what is said and desire to return to what they want to say.

Great souls are not those who have fewer passions and more virtues than others, but only those who have greater designs.

Idleness and constancy fix the mind to what it finds easy and agreeable. This habit always confines and cramps up our knowledge; and no one has ever taken the trouble to stretch and carry his understanding as far as it could go.

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

The gallantry of the mind consists in agreeable flattery.

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

How can we expect another to keep our secret if we have been unable to keep it ourselves?