1,221 Quotes by François de La Rochefoucauld

The hunger for applause is the source for all conscious literature and heroism.

Confidence contributes more to conversation than wit.

We are so accustomed to masquerade ourselves before others that we end by deceiving ourselves.

There are crimes which become innocent, and even glorious, through their splendor, number, and excess: Hence it is, that public theft is called Address, and to seize on Provinces unjustly, to make Conquests.

The renown of great men should always be measured by the means which they have used to acquire it.

The violence done us by others is often less painful than that which we do to ourselves

The love of justice is, in most men, nothing more than the fear of suffering injustice

There are different kinds of curiosity; one of interest, which causes us to learn that which would be useful to us; and the other of pride, which springs from a desire to know that of which others are ignorant.

What makes the vanity of others insupportable is that it wounds our own.