Top 500 François de La Rochefoucauld Quotes (2025 Update)
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301. “There are no circumstances, however unfortunate, that clever people do not extract some advantage from.”

— François de La Rochefoucauld

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

— François de La Rochefoucauld

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

— François de La Rochefoucauld

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

— François de La Rochefoucauld

305. “The only good copies are those which make us see the absurdity of bad originals.”

— François de La Rochefoucauld

306. “We are never so easily deceived as when we imagine we are deceiving others.”

— François de La Rochefoucauld

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

— François de La Rochefoucauld

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

— François de La Rochefoucauld

309. “There is many a virtuous woman weary of her trade.”

— François de La Rochefoucauld

310. “Silence is the safest course for any man to adopt who distrust himself.”

— François de La Rochefoucauld

311. “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

312. “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

313. “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

314. “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

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

— François de La Rochefoucauld

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

— François de La Rochefoucauld

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

— François de La Rochefoucauld

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

— 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. “Intrepidity is an extraordinary strength of soul, which raises it above the troubles, disorders and emotions which the sight of great perils can arouse in it; by this strength heroes maintain a calm aspect and preserve their reason and liberty in the most surprising and terrible accidents.”

— François de La Rochefoucauld

321. “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

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

— François de La Rochefoucauld

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

— François de La Rochefoucauld

324. “Hope and fear are inseparable.”

— François de La Rochefoucauld

325. “It is as easy to deceive one’s self without perceiving it, as it is difficult to deceive others without their finding out.”

— François de La Rochefoucauld

326. “We would rather speak ill of ourselves than not talk about ourselves at all.”

— François de La Rochefoucauld

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

— François de La Rochefoucauld

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

— François de La Rochefoucauld

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

— François de La Rochefoucauld

330. “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

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

— François de La Rochefoucauld

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

— François de La Rochefoucauld

333. “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

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

— François de La Rochefoucauld

335. “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

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

— François de La Rochefoucauld

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

— François de La Rochefoucauld

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

— François de La Rochefoucauld

339. “Few things are impossible in themselves: application to make them succeed fails us more often than the means.”

— François de La Rochefoucauld

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

— François de La Rochefoucauld

341. “It seems that nature, which has so wisely disposed our bodily organs with a view to our happiness, has also bestowed on us pride, to spare us the pain of being aware of our imperfections.”

— François de La Rochefoucauld

342. “We seldom praise anyone in good earnest, except such as admire us.”

— François de La Rochefoucauld

343. “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

344. “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

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

— François de La Rochefoucauld

346. “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

347. “Every one complains of a poor memory, no one of a weak judgment.”

— François de La Rochefoucauld

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

— François de La Rochefoucauld

349. “One may outwit another, but not all the others.”

— François de La Rochefoucauld

350. “Our good qualities expose us more to hatred and persecution than all the ill we do.”

— François de La Rochefoucauld