Top 500 François de La Rochefoucauld Quotes (2026 Update)
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301. “Nothing hinders a thing from being natural so much as the straining ourselves to make it seem so.”

— François de La Rochefoucauld

302. “It is not always from valor or from chastity that men are brave, and women chaste.”

— François de La Rochefoucauld

303. “We endeavor to make a virtue of the faults we are unwilling to correct.”

— François de La Rochefoucauld

304. “Silence is the safest policy if you are unsure of yourself.”

— François de La Rochefoucauld

305. “There are no accidents so unlucky from which clever people are not able to reap some advantage, and none so lucky that the foolish are not able to turn them to their own disadvantage.”

— François de La Rochefoucauld

306. “It is harder to hide the feelings we have than to feign the ones we do not have.”

— François de La Rochefoucauld

307. “There is a kind of love, the excess of which forbids jealousy.”

— François de La Rochefoucauld

308. “We forget our faults easily when they are known to ourselves alone.”

— François de La Rochefoucauld

309. “We say little, when vanity does not make us speak.”

— François de La Rochefoucauld

310. “The generality of virtuous women are like hidden treasures, they are safe only because nobody has sought after them.”

— François de La Rochefoucauld

311. “The fame of great men ought to be judged always by their big, fancy names.”

— François de La Rochefoucauld

312. “Pride does not wish to owe and vanity does not wish to pay.”

— François de La Rochefoucauld

313. “Reconciliation with our enemies is simply a desire to better our condition, a weariness of war, or the fear of some unlucky thing from occurring.”

— François de La Rochefoucauld

314. “As it is the characteristic of great wits to say much in few words, so small wits seem to have the gift of speaking much and saying nothing.”

— François de La Rochefoucauld

315. “Solemnity is a device of the body to hide the faults of the mind.”

— François de La Rochefoucauld

316. “The health of the soul is as precarious as that of the body; for when we seem secure from passions, we are no less in danger of their infection than we are of falling ill when we appear to be well.”

— François de La Rochefoucauld

317. “Nothing is more ridiculous in old people that were once good-looking, than to forget that they are not so still.”

— François de La Rochefoucauld

318. “Great names abase, instead of elevating, those who do not know how to bear them.”

— François de La Rochefoucauld

319. “Lovers, when they are no longer in love, find it very hard to break up.”

— François de La Rochefoucauld

320. “Satire is at once the most agreeable and most dangerous of mental qualities. It always pleases when it is refined, but we always fear those who use it too much; yet satire should be allowed when unmixed with spite, and when the person satirized can join in the satire.”

— François de La Rochefoucauld

321. “However evil men may be they dare not be openly hostile to virtue, and so when they want to attack it they pretend to find it spurious, or impute crimes to it.”

— François de La Rochefoucauld

322. “Most men expose themselves in battle enough to save their honor, few wish to do so more than sufficiently, or than is necessary to make the design for which they expose themselves succeed.”

— François de La Rochefoucauld

323. “What keeps us from abandoning ourselves entirely to one vice, often, is the fact that we have several.”

— François de La Rochefoucauld

324. “Generally speaking, we would make a good bargain by renouncing all the good that people say of us, upon condition they would say no ill.”

— François de La Rochefoucauld

325. “It is from a weakness and smallness of mind that men are opinionated; and we are very loath to believe what we are not able to comprehend.”

— François de La Rochefoucauld

326. “Most women lament not the death of their lovers so much out of real affection for them, as because they would appear worthy of love.”

— François de La Rochefoucauld

327. “Those who occupy their minds with small matters, generally become incapable of greatness.”

— François de La Rochefoucauld

328. “There are a great many men valued in society who have nothing to recommend them but serviceable vices.”

— François de La Rochefoucauld

329. “Men’s happiness and misery depends altogether as much upon their own humor as it does upon fortune.”

— François de La Rochefoucauld

330. “We have not strength enough to follow our reason so far as it would carry us.”

— François de La Rochefoucauld

331. “A wise man thinks it more advantageous not to join the battle than to win.”

— François de La Rochefoucauld

332. “Indolence, languid as it is, often masters both passions and virtues.”

— François de La Rochefoucauld

333. “We are better pleased to see those on whom we confer benefits than those from whom we receive them.”

— François de La Rochefoucauld

334. “Every one speaks well of his own heart, but no one dares speak well of his own mind.”

— François de La Rochefoucauld

335. “Vices are ingredients of virtues just as poisons are ingredients of remedies. Prudence mixes and tempers them and uses them effectively against life’s ills.”

— François de La Rochefoucauld

336. “No one thinks fortune so blind as those she has been least kind to.”

— François de La Rochefoucauld

337. “Interest blinds some people, and enlightens others.”

— François de La Rochefoucauld

338. “Fortune converts everything to the advantage of her favorites.”

— François de La Rochefoucauld

339. “Many people despise wealth, but few know how to give it away.”

— François de La Rochefoucauld

340. “People’s personalities, like buildings, have various facades, some pleasant to view, some not.”

— François de La Rochefoucauld

341. “Usually we praise only to be praised.”

— François de La Rochefoucauld

342. “The greatest fault of a penetrating wit is to go beyond the mark.”

— François de La Rochefoucauld

343. “Though nature be ever so generous, yet can she not make a hero alone. Fortune must contribute her part too; and till both concur, the work cannot be perfected.”

— François de La Rochefoucauld

344. “To know oneself is not necessarily to improve oneself.”

— François de La Rochefoucauld

345. “Honest people will respect us for our merit: the public, for our luck.”

— François de La Rochefoucauld

346. “The blindness of men is the most dangerous effect of their pride; it seems to nourish and augment it; it deprives them of knowledge of remedies which can solace their miseries and can cure their faults.”

— François de La Rochefoucauld

347. “Not all those who know their minds know their hearts as well.”

— François de La Rochefoucauld

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

— François de La Rochefoucauld

349. “The hunger for applause is the source for all conscious literature and heroism.”

— François de La Rochefoucauld

350. “Moderation resembles temperance. We are not so unwilling to eat more, as afraid of doing ourselves harm by it.”

— François de La Rochefoucauld