1,221 Quotes by François de La Rochefoucauld

Perfect valour is to do without witnesses whatone would do before all the world.

True Valour would do all that, when alone, that it could do, if all the World were by.

It is easier to understand mankind in general than any individual man.

He who imagines he can do without the world deceives himself much; but he who fancies the world cannot do without him is still more mistaken.

Those who most obstinately oppose the most widely-held opinions more often do so because of pride than lack of intelligence. They find the best places in the right set already taken, and they do not want back seats.

Nothing prevents us being natural so much as the desire to appear so.

Everyone complains of his memory, and no one complains of his judgment.

Nobody deserves to be praised for goodness unless he is strong enough to be bad, for any other goodness is usually merely inertia or lack of will-power

Nobody deserves to be praised for goodness unless he is strong enough to be bad.