Top 500 François de La Rochefoucauld Quotes (2025 Update)
Page 9 of 10

401. “We torment ourselves rather to make it appear that we are happy than to become so.”

— François de La Rochefoucauld

402. “Moderation is a fear of falling into that envy and contempt which those who grow giddy with their good fortune quite justly draw upon themselves. It is a vain boasting of the greatness of our mind.”

— François de La Rochefoucauld

403. “The force we use on ourselves, to prevent ourselves from loving, is often more cruel than the severest treatment at the hands of one loved.”

— François de La Rochefoucauld

404. “Some accidents there are in life that a little folly is necessary to help us out of.”

— François de La Rochefoucauld

405. “We only acknowledge small faults in order to make it appear that we are free from great ones.”

— François de La Rochefoucauld

406. “We do not praise others, ordinarily, but in order to be praised ourselves.”

— François de La Rochefoucauld

407. “Second-rate minds usually condemn everything beyond their grasp.”

— François de La Rochefoucauld

408. “Ordinary men commonly condemn what is beyond them.”

— François de La Rochefoucauld

409. “If it were not for poetry, few men would ever fall in love.”

— François de La Rochefoucauld

410. “The love of new acquaintance comes not so much from being weary of what we had before, or from any satisfaction there is in change, as from the distaste we feel in being too little admired by those that know us too well, and the hope of being more admired by those that know us less.”

— François de La Rochefoucauld

411. “Men would not live in society long if they were not each others dupes.”

— François de La Rochefoucauld

412. “Our distrust justifies the deceit of others.”

— François de La Rochefoucauld

413. “If a man doesn’t find ease in himself, ’tis in vain to seek it elsewhere.”

— François de La Rochefoucauld

414. “Those whom the world has delighted to honor have oftener been influenced in their doings by ambition and vanity than by patriotism.”

— François de La Rochefoucauld

415. “The virtues and vices are all put in motion by interest.”

— François de La Rochefoucauld

416. “Self-interest speaks all manner of tongues and plays all manner of parts, even that of disinterestedness.”

— François de La Rochefoucauld

417. “Youth changes its tastes by the warmth of its blood; age retains its tastes by habit.”

— François de La Rochefoucauld

418. “All men are equally proud. The only difference is that not all take the same methods of showing it.”

— François de La Rochefoucauld

419. “Self-love increases or diminishes for us the good qualities of our friends, in proportion to the satisfaction we feel with them; and we judge of their merit by the manner in which they act towards us.”

— François de La Rochefoucauld

420. “Sometimes we meet a fool with wit, never one with discretion.”

— François de La Rochefoucauld

421. “To establish yourself in the world a person must do all they can to appear already established.”

— François de La Rochefoucauld

422. “The dullness of certain people is sometimes a sufficient security against the attack of an artful man.”

— François de La Rochefoucauld

423. “That good disposition which boasts of being most tender is often stifled by the least urging of self-interest.”

— François de La Rochefoucauld

424. “Our aversion to lying is commonly a secret ambition to make what we say considerable, and have every word received with a religious respect.”

— François de La Rochefoucauld

425. “Some good qualities are like the senses: Those who are entirely deprived of them can have no notion of them.”

— François de La Rochefoucauld

426. “The violence we do to ourselves in order to remain faithful to the one we love is hardly better than an act of infidelity.”

— François de La Rochefoucauld

427. “Women do not know all their powers of flirtation.”

— François de La Rochefoucauld

428. “The vivacity that augments with years is not far from folly.”

— François de La Rochefoucauld

429. “A man of understanding finds less difficulty in submitting to a wrong-headed fellow, than in attempting to set him right.”

— François de La Rochefoucauld

430. “It is praiseworthy even to attempt a great action.”

— François de La Rochefoucauld

431. “We often brag that we are never bored with ourselves, and are so vain as never to think ourselves bad company.”

— François de La Rochefoucauld

432. “When our vices leave us, we like to imagine it is we who are leaving them.”

— François de La Rochefoucauld

433. “The good or the bad fortune of men depends not less upon their own dispositions than upon fortune.”

— François de La Rochefoucauld

434. “Virtue would not make such advances if there were not a little vanity to keep it company.”

— François de La Rochefoucauld

435. “It is most difficult to speak when we are ashamed of being silent.”

— François de La Rochefoucauld

436. “We do not wish ardently for what we desire only through reason.”

— François de La Rochefoucauld

437. “It is sometimes a point of as much cleverness to know to make good use of advice from others as to be able give good advice to oneself.”

— François de La Rochefoucauld

438. “In love, the quickest is always the best cure.”

— François de La Rochefoucauld

439. “Consolation for unhappiness can often be found in a certain satisfaction we get from looking unhappy.”

— François de La Rochefoucauld

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

— François de La Rochefoucauld

441. “The most violent passions sometimes leave us at rest, but vanity agitates us constantly.”

— François de La Rochefoucauld

442. “To praise princes for virtues they do not possess is to insult them without fear of consequences.”

— François de La Rochefoucauld

443. “There are several remedies which will cure love, but there are no infallible ones.”

— François de La Rochefoucauld

444. “The breeding we give young people is ordinarily but an additional self-love, by which we make them have a better opinion of themselves.”

— François de La Rochefoucauld

445. “Those that have had great passions esteem themselves for the rest of their lives fortunate and unfortunate in being cured of them.”

— François de La Rochefoucauld

446. “Eloquence: saying the proper thing and stopping.”

— François de La Rochefoucauld

447. “Nothing should lessen our satisfaction with ourselves as much as when we notice that we disapprove of something at one time that we approve of at another time.”

— François de La Rochefoucauld

448. “The intellect of the generality of women serves more to fortify their folly than their reason.”

— François de La Rochefoucauld

449. “The name and pretense of virtue is as serviceable to self-interest as are real vices.”

— François de La Rochefoucauld

450. “In the human heart one generation of passions follows another; from the ashes of one springs the spark of the next.”

— François de La Rochefoucauld