1,221 Quotes by François de La Rochefoucauld

Men are inconsolable concerning the treachery of their friends or the deceptions of their enemies; and yet they are often very highly satisfied to be both deceived and betrayed by their own selves.

Avarice is more opposite to economy than liberality.

What often prevents our abandoning ourselves to a single vice is, our having more than one.

In the human heart there is a ceaseless birth of passions, so that the destruction of one is almost always the establishment of another.

Hypocrisy is the homage vice pays to virtue.

We take less pains to be happy, than to appear so.

The common foible of women who have been handsome is to forget that they are no longer so.

It is sometimes necessary to play the fool to avoid being deceived by cunning men.

The first lover is kept a long while, when no offer is made of a second.