1,221 Quotes by François de La Rochefoucauld

When we exaggerate the tenderness of our friends towards us, it is often less from gratitude than from a desire to exhibit our own merit.

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

The most deceitful persons spend their lives in blaming deceit, so as to use it on some great occasion to promote some great interest.

Absence diminishes little passions and increases great ones, as wind extinguishes candles and fans a fire.

Moderation is an ostentatious proof of our strength of character.

If we resist our passions, it is more because of their weakness than because of our strength.

Perfect valor is to behave, without witnesses, as one would act were all the world watching.

In the misfortune of our best friends, we always find something which is not displeasing to us.

As it is the characteristic of great wits to say much in few words, so it is of small wits to talk much and say nothing.