La Rochefoucauld Quotes

Nothing prevents our being natural as much as our desire to seem so.

We are so accustomed to disguising ourselves that we wind up disguising ourselves from ourselves. (119)

We torment ourselves rather to make it appear we are happy than to become so.

We credit judges with having the meanest motives, and yet we desire our reputation and fame should depend upon the judgment of men, all of whom--either from their jealousy, preoccupation, or want of intelligence--are opposed to us. And yet, it is merely for the sake of making these men decide in our flavor, that we peril in so many ways both our peace and our life. (268)

A man no one is pleasing is much unhappier than a man who pleases nobody.

The head is ever the dupe of the heart. (102)

Those who know their minds do not necessarily know their hearts. (103)

The head cannot play the part of the heart for long. (108)

A man often believes he is leading when he is [actually being] led; while his mind seeks one goal, his heart unknowingly drags him towards another. (43)

In the human heart there is a perpetual generation of passions; so that the ruin of one is almost always the foundation of another.

Reason alone is insufficient to make us enthusiastic in any matter.

We do not wish ardently for what we desire only through reason. (469)

Before strongly desiring anything, we should examine the happiness of those who already posses it.

We should earnestly desire but few things if we clearly knew what we desired. (439)

It is more easy to extinguish the first desire than to satisfy those which follow.

A clever man should handle his interests so that each will fall in suitable order [of their value]. Our greediness often brings trouble to this order, and makes us pursue so many things at the same time, that while we attend to the trifling too eagerly, we miss the great. (66)

Avarice often produces opposite results: there are an infinite number of persons who sacrifice their property to doubtful and distant expectations, others mistake great future advantages for small present interests. (492)

A man for whom accident discovers sense, is not a rational being. A man only is so who understands, who distinguishes, who tests it. (105)

Fortune cures us of many faults that reason could not. (154)

Although we do not have the courage to say that in general we have no faults and our enemies have no good qualities, in reality, we are not far from believing so. (397)

We find very few people of good sense, except those who are of our own opinion. (347)

We try to make a virtue of vices we are loth/unwilling to correct. (442)

We admit to small faults in order to persuade others that we do not have great ones. (327)

Of all our faults that which we most readily admit is idleness: we believe that it makes all virtues ineffectual, and that without utterly destroying, it at least suspends their operation. (398)

There is an air that belongs to the figure and talents of each individual; we always lose it when we abandon it to assume another. We should try to find out what air is natural to us and never abandon it, but make it as perfect as we can.

People make experiments upon themselves without considering that what suits one person will not suit everyone, that there is no universal rule for taste or manners. ... I do not pretend, from what I say, that each should so wrap himself up in himself so as to not be able to follow example, or to add to his own, useful and serviceable habits which nature has not given him. But yet, acquired qualities should always have a certain agreement and a certain union with our own natural qualities, which they imperceptibly extend and increase.

Men would not live long in society were they not the dupes of each other. (87)

Our most subtle act is to pretend we are not aware of the snares that we know are set for us. People are never so easily deceived as when trying to deceive. (117)

The intention of never deceiving often exposes us to deception. (118)

It is sometimes necessary to play the fool in order to avoid being deceived by cunning men. (129)

It is much easier to know men than it is to know a man. (436)

Fancy/imagination does not enable us to invent so many different contradictions as there are by nature in every heart. (478)

We sometimes differ more widely from ourselves than we do from others. (135)

Jealousy is in some measure just and reasonable, since it wants to keep possession of a good that we own or that we believe we own; as opposed to envy, which is a fury that cannot endure the happiness of others. (28)

More persons exist without self-love than without envy. (486)

We often boast of our passions, even the most criminal ones; but envy is such a timid and shameful passion that we never dare to admit it. (27)

Envy is more irreconcilable than hatred. (328)

There are few occasions when we should make a bad bargain by giving up the good on condition that no ill was said of us. (454)

When people desire to persecute/attack virtue, they either pretend to believe it false, or they attribute crimes to it. (489)

Our evil actions do not attract as much persecution and hatred as our good qualities. (29)

In life's interactions, we please more by our faults than by our good qualities. (90)

There are some people who only disgust with their abilities; there are persons who please even with their faults. (155)

There are people whose faults become them, and others whose very virtues disgrace them. (251)

There are people who the world approves of who have no merit besides their vices useful in social life. (273)

The art of using moderate abilities to advantage wins praise, and often acquires more reputation than real brilliancy. (162)

There are foolish people who know and who skillfully use their folly. (208)

No fools so wearisome as those who have some wit. (451)

We are quick to criticize other people's faults, but slow to use those faults to correct our own.

Few persons have sufficient wisdom to prefer censure which is useful to them to praise which deceives them. (147)

Self love is more cunning than the most cunning man in the world. (4)

Neither the sun nor death can be looked at steadily. (26)

Nothing is given as liberally as advice. (110)

We often act treacherously more from weakness than from a fixed motive. (120)

If we never flattered ourselves, we should have but scant/insufficient pleasure. (123)

The only good examples are those that make us see the absurdity of bad originals. (133)

A countless number of acts that appear foolish have secret motives which are very wise and weighty. (163)

It is much easier to seem fitted for posts we do not fill, than for those we do. (164)

Ability wins us the esteem of the true individuals, luck that of the people. (165)

There are relapses in the diseases of the mind as in those of the body; what we call a cure is often no more than an intermission or change of disease. (193)

The desire to appear clever often prevents our being so. (199)

In growing old, we become more foolish and more wise. (210)

There are people who are like farces, which are praised but for a time. (211)

Intrepidity is an extraordinary strength of soul that raises it above the troubles, disorders, and emotions that 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 predicaments. (217)

Most men expose themselves in battle just enough to save their honor. Few wish to do so more than that, or to make sure that the purpose that they expose themselves for succeeds. (219)

Lucky people are often bad hands at correcting their faults; they believe that they are right when luck backs up their vice or folly. (227)

It is great folly to wish only to be wise. (231)

It is not so dangerous to do wrong to most men, than to do them too much good. (238)

To men who have deserved high praise, nothing should be more humbling than the lengths to which they will still go to get credit for petty things. (272)

Only in minor matters are we usually bold enough not to trust appearances. (302)

We may forgive those who bore us; we cannot forgive those whom we bore. (304)

If we take the liberty to dwell on the faults of our friends and benefactors, we cannot long preserve the feelings we should hold towards them. (319)

When our hatred is too bitter, it places us below those whom we hate. (338)

There are few virtuous women who are not tired of their part. (367)

No people are more often wrong than those who will not allow themselves to be wrong. (386)

There may be talent without position, but there is no position without some kind of talent. (400)

We reach quite inexperienced the different stages of life, and often, in spite of the number of our years, we lack experience. (405)

It is easier for a well-trained mind to submit to an ill-trained mind than to guide it. (448)

Every kind of conversation, however witty it may be, is not equally fitted for all clever persons. We should select what is to their taste and suitable to their condition, gender, and talents; and also choose the proper time to say it.

It is very hard to separate the general goodness spread all over the world from great cleverness. (252 [1665 Edition])

There are fine things that are more brilliant when unfinished than when finished too much. (262 [1665 Edition])

In order to punish man for his original sin, God has made him so fond of his self-love that he is tormented by it in all the actions of his life.

Minds of moderate caliber ordinarily condemn everything that is beyond their range. (375)

Bio

French writer Francois la Rochefoucauld (1613-1680) produced many unique ideas in philosophy and many interesting insights on human nature.

Early Life

Francois was born in Paris, France, and belonged to one of the most illustrious families of the French noblesse. During those times, the unstable French government often alternated between aiding the nobility and posing a threat to them.

Francois spent much of his life in the military. He served for the French army on-and-off from 1629 to 1646, and also was a notable fighter in the French civil war from 1648 to 1653. During his military career, Francois received major wounds several times before finally retiring around 1653.

Maxims

After retiring, and while recovering from various injuries, Francois joined an intellectual and scholarly group in Paris. During his time with them, he and the others often composed epigrams, which are concise statements and sayings that are often clever, witty, informative, and sometimes paradoxical or enigmatic.

By 1665, he collected many of thee epigrams along with several of his essays, and put them in the first edition of Maxims. Over the years, he released five revised editions, the last of which came out in 1678. A sixth edition was released thirteen years after his death, in 1693, and included fifty new maxims the editor attributed to Francois.

Maxims contains mainly commentary about human nature and human interactions, and what Francois believes are the common inaccuracies of people's perceptions of themselves and of others. Francois's theories about human nature cover such topics as self-interest & self-love, emotions, vanity, relationships, love, conversation, insincerity, and deception. His writings are very concise, straightforward, and candid.

Maxims is considered one of the most notable and widely read works of literature in history. It also has a somewhat notorious reputation, due to its various not-so-flattering portrayals of people. That being said, Francois himself liked people and was generally quite friendly and sociable.

His life is marked by four periods, each of which was occupied with an association and obsession with a different woman.

Personality

Francois described himself as active, melancholy, reserved, skilled, fond of conversation, fond of reading, excessively critical, fond of argument, fond of self-improvement and hearing his friends candidly tell him of his faults, emotionally controlled, and very respectful and chivalrous towards women.