1,221 Quotes by François de La Rochefoucauld

What men call friendship is no more than a partnership, a mutual care of interests, an exchange of favors – in a word, it is a sort of traffic, in which self-love ever proposes to be the gainer.

As we grow older, we increase in folly – and in wisdom.

The accent of one’s birthplace remains in the mind and in the heart as in one’s speech.

The greatest of all gifts is the power to estimate things at their true worth.

People’s personalities, like buildings, have various facades, some pleasant to view, some not.

Self-love is the love of a man’s own self, and of everything else for his own sake. It makes people idolaters to themselves, and tyrants to all the world besides.

It is with sincere affection or friendship as with ghosts and apparitions, – a thing that everybody talks of, and scarce any hath seen.

Our envy always lasts longer than the happiness of those we envy.

The art of using moderate abilities to advantage often brings greater results than actual brilliance.