Top 500 François de La Rochefoucauld Quotes (2024 Update)
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301. “No one thinks fortune so blind as those she has been least kind to.”

— François de La Rochefoucauld

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

— François de La Rochefoucauld

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

— François de La Rochefoucauld

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

— François de La Rochefoucauld

305. “Nothing hinders a thing from being natural so much as the straining ourselves to make it seem so.”

— François de La Rochefoucauld

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

— François de La Rochefoucauld

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

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

— François de La Rochefoucauld

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

— 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. “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

313. “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

314. “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

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

— François de La Rochefoucauld

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

— François de La Rochefoucauld

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

— François de La Rochefoucauld

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

— François de La Rochefoucauld

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

— François de La Rochefoucauld

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

— François de La Rochefoucauld

321. “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

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

— François de La Rochefoucauld

323. “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

324. “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

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

— François de La Rochefoucauld

326. “Humility is often a false front we employ to gain power over others.”

— François de La Rochefoucauld

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

— François de La Rochefoucauld

328. “Hope and fear are inseparable.”

— François de La Rochefoucauld

329. “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

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

— François de La Rochefoucauld

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

— François de La Rochefoucauld

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

— François de La Rochefoucauld

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

— François de La Rochefoucauld

334. “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

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

— François de La Rochefoucauld

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

— François de La Rochefoucauld

337. “It is a mistake to imagine, that the violent passions only, such as ambition and love, can triumph over the rest. Idleness, languid as it is, often masters them all; she influences all our designs and actions, and insensibly consumes and destroys both passions and virtues.”

— François de La Rochefoucauld

338. “Good taste comes more from the judgment than from the mind.”

— François de La Rochefoucauld

339. “We are much harder on people who betray us in small ways than on people who betray others in great ones.”

— François de La Rochefoucauld

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

— François de La Rochefoucauld

341. “We bear, all of us, the misfortunes of other people with heroic constancy.”

— François de La Rochefoucauld

342. “That man, we may be sure, is a person of true worth, whom those who envy him most are yet forced to praise.”

— François de La Rochefoucauld

343. “Eloquence resides as much in the tone of voice, in the eyes, and in the expression of the face, as in the choice of words.”

— François de La Rochefoucauld

344. “Perhaps being old is having lighted rooms inside your head, and people in them, acting. People you know, yet can’t quite name.”

— François de La Rochefoucauld

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

— François de La Rochefoucauld

346. “Timidity is a fault for which it is dangerous to reprove persons whom we wish to correct of it.”

— François de La Rochefoucauld

347. “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

348. “The distempers of the soul have their relapses, as many and as dangerous as those of the body; and what we take for a perfect cureis generally either an abatement of the same disease or the changing of that for another.”

— François de La Rochefoucauld

349. “Love has its name borrowed by a great number of dealings and affairs that are attributed to it – in which it has no greater part than the Doge in what is done at Venice.”

— François de La Rochefoucauld

350. “It is as common for tastes to change as it is uncommon for traits of character.”

— François de La Rochefoucauld