1,221 Quotes by François de La Rochefoucauld

Considering how little the beginning or the ceasing to love is in our own power, it is foolish and unreasonable for the lover or his mistress to complain of one another's inconstancy.

Weakness is the only fault that is incorrigible.

When a man is in love, he doubts, very often, what he most firmly believes.

Selfishness is the grand moving principle of nine-tenths of our actions.

Customary use of artifice is the sign of a small mind, and it almost always happens that he who uses it to cover one spot uncovers himself in another.

Sometimes in life situations develop that only the half-crazy can get out of.

Hope and fear are inseparable. There is no hope without fear, nor any fear without hope.

Happiness is in the taste, and not in the things.

The passions are the only orators that always persuade: they are, as it were, a natural art, the rules of which are infallible; and the simplest man with passion is more persuasive than the most eloquent without it.