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Francois de La Rochefoucauld Quotes - Page 43

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We should wish for few things with eagerness, if we perfectly knew the nature of that which was the object of our desire.

We should wish for few things with eagerness, if we perfectly knew the nature of that which was the object of our desire.

Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Wish, Desire, Want

The most brilliant fortunes are often not worth the littleness required to gain them.

Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Gains, Brilliant, Wealth

Wit sometimes enables us to act rudely with impunity.

Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Sometimes, Wit, Impunity

A man does not please long when he has only species of wit.

Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Men, Long, Doe

Women can less easily surmount their coquetry than their passions.

Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Women, Passion, Coquetry

As it is the mark of great minds to say many things in a few words, so it is that of little minds to use many words to say nothing.

Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Mind, Use, Littles

Youth is a continual intoxication; it is the fever of reason.

Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Fever, Youth, Reason

The most clever and polite are content with only seeming attentive while we perceive in their mind and eyes that at the very time they are wandering from what is said and desire to return to what they want to say.

Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Clever, Eye, Mind

It is oftener by the estimation of our own feelings that we exaggerate the good qualities of others than by their merit, and when we praise them we wish to attract their praise.

Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Feelings, Wish, Quality

Moderation is caused by the fear of exciting the envy and contempt which those merit who are intoxicated with their good fortune; it is a vain display of our strength of mind, and in short the moderation of men at their greatest height is only a desire to appear greater than their fortune.

Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Men, Envy, Mind

Those who are condemned to death affect sometimes a constancy and contempt for death which is only the fear of facing it; so that one may say that this constancy and contempt are to their mind what the bandage is to their eyes.

Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Eye, Mind, May

When great men permit themselves to be cast down by the continuance of misfortune, they show us that they were only sustained by ambition, and not by their mind; so that PLUS a great vanity, heroes are made like other men.

Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Hero, Ambition, Men

People are often vain of their passions, even of the worst, but envy is a passion so timid and shame-faced that no one ever dare avow her.

Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Passion, People, Envy

Jealousy is in a manner just and reasonable, as it tends to preserve a good which belongs, or which we believe belongs to us, on the other hand envy is a fury which cannot endure the happiness of others.

Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Believe, Hands, Envy

Pride indemnifies itself and loses nothing even when it casts away vanity.

Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Pride, Vanity, Cast Away

We have not enough strength to follow all our reason.

Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Reason, Enough

The caprice of our temper is even more whimsical than that of Fortune.

Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Whimsical, Fortune, Caprice

The contempt of riches in philosophers was only a hidden desire to avenge their merit upon the injustice of fortune, by despising the very goods of which fortune had deprived them; it was a secret to guard themselves against the degradation of poverty, it was a back way by which to arrive at that distinction which they could not gain by riches.

Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Secret, Desire, Degradation

A man is perhaps ungrateful, but often less chargeable with ingratitude than his benefactor is.

Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Men, Ungrateful, Benefactors
"Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims". Book by François de La Rochefoucauld, maxim 95, 1665.

We are deceived if we think that mind and judgment are two different matters: judgment is but the extent of the light of the mind. This light penetrates to the bottom of matters; it remarks all that can be remarked, and perceives what appears imperceptible. Therefore we must agree that it is the extent of the light in the mind that produces all the effects which we attribute to judgment.

Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Thinking, Light, Two

Everyone praises his heart, none dare praise their understanding.

Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Heart, Understanding, Praise

Men and things have each their proper perspective; to judge rightly of some it is necessary to see them near, of others we can never judge rightly but at a distance.

Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Distance, Men, Perspective

A man for whom accident discovers sense, is not a rational being. A man only is so who understands, who distinguishes, who tests it.

Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Men, Tests, Rational

One kind of flirtation is to boast we never flirt.

Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Flirting, Kind, Flirtation

The most subtle of our acts is to simulate blindness for snares that we know are set for us.

Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Subtle, Snares, Blindness

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