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Adams, John • Bacon, Francis • Bible • Bierce, Ambrose • Billings, Josh • Butcher, Jim • Chesterton, Gilbert Keith • Churchill, Winston • Einstein, Albert • Eisenhower, Dwight David • Emerson, Ralph Waldo • Franklin, Benjamin • Fuller, Thomas (1654) • Gaiman, Neil • Galbraith, John Kenneth • Gandhi, Mohandas • Goethe, Johann von • Hazlitt, William • Heinlein, Robert A. • Hoffer, Eric • Huxley, Aldous • Ingersoll, Robert Green • James, William • Jefferson, Thomas • Johnson, Lyndon • Johnson, Samuel • Kennedy, John F. • King, Martin Luther • La Rochefoucauld, Francois • Lewis, C.S. • Lincoln, Abraham • Mencken, H.L. • Orwell, George • Pratchett, Terry • Roosevelt, Eleanor • Roosevelt, Theodore • Russell, Bertrand • Seneca the Younger • Shakespeare, William • Shaw, George Bernard • Stevenson, Adlai • Stevenson, Robert Louis • Twain, Mark • Watterson, Bill • Wilde, Oscar- Only the 45 most quoted authors are shown above. Full author list.
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Quotations by La Rochefoucauld, Francois
Before we set our hearts too much on anything, let us examine how happy are those who already possess it.
Those who are incapable of committing great crimes do not readily suspect them in others.
Behind many acts that are thought ridiculous there lie wise and weighty motives.
[Il y a une infinité de conduites qui paraissent ridicules, et dont les raisons cachées sont très sages et très solides.]
A small degree of wit, accompanied by good sense, is less tiresome in the long run than a great amount of wit without it.
When we are unable to find tranquility within ourselves, it is useless to seek it elsewhere.
We are so accustomed to disguise ourselves to others that in the end we become disguised to ourselves.
If we had no faults of our own, we would not take so much pleasure in noticing those of others.
The height of cleverness is to be able to conceal it.
There is nothing more horrible than the murder of a beautiful theory by a brutal gang of facts.
In the adversity of our best friends we often find something which does not displease us.
Although men flatter themselves with their great actions, they are not so often the result of a great design as of chance.
We all have enough strength to endure the misfortunes of others.
[Nous avons tous assez de force pour supporter les maux d’autrui.]
Philosophy easily triumphs over past ills and ills to come, but present ills triumph over philosophy.
The ambitious deceive themselves when they propose an end to their ambition; for that end, when attained, becomes a means.
We promise according to our hopes, and perform according to our fears.
One is never so happy or so unhappy as one thinks.
[On n’est jamais si heureux ni si malheureux qu’on s’imagine.]
No occurrences are so unfortunate that the shrewd cannot turn them to some advantage, nor so fortunate that the imprudent cannot turn them to their own disadvantage.
There are very few people who are not ashamed of having been in love when they no longer love each other.
[Il n’y a guère de gens qui ne soient honteux de s’être aimés quand ils ne s’aiment plus.]
True love is like ghosts, which everyone talks about and few have seen.
[Il est du véritable amour comme de l’apparition des esprits tout le monde en parle, mais peu de gens en ont vu.]
The love of justice in most men is simply the fear of suffering injustice.
[L’amour de la justice n’est en la plupart des hommes que la crainte de souffrir l’injustice.]
Everyone complains of his memory, but no one complains of his judgment.
[Tout le monde se plaint de sa mémoire, et personne ne se plaint de son jugement.]
Old men are fond of giving advice, to console themselves for being no longer in a position to give bad examples.
[Les vieillards aiment à donner de bons préceptes, pour se consoler de n’être plus en état de donner de mauvais exemples.]
He who imagines he can do without the world deceives himself much; but he who fancies the world cannot do without him is still more mistaken.
Old people are fond of giving good advice; it consoles them for no longer being capable of setting a bad example.
It often happens that things come into the mind in a much more finished form than could have been achieved after much study.
Not all those who know their minds know their hearts as well.
[Tous ceux qui connaissent leur esprit ne connaissent pas leur coeur.]
With nothing are we so generous as advice.
‘Tis as easy to deceive one’s self without perceiving it, as it is difficult to deceive others without being perceived.
[Il est aussi facile de se tromper soi-même sans s’en apercevoir qu’il est difficile de tromper les autres sans qu’ils s’en aperçoivent.]
Men are oftener treacherous out of weakness than out of any formed design.
[L’on fait plus souvent des trahisons par faiblesse que par un dessein formé de trahir.]
Tricks and treachery are merely proof of lack of skill.
[Les finesses et les trahisons ne viennent que de manque d’habileté.]
The true way to be deceived is to think oneself more clever than others.
[Le vrai moyen d’être trompé, c’est de se croire plus fin que les autres.]
Those qualities we have do not make us so ridiculous as those which we affect.
[On n’est jamais si ridicule par les qualités que l’on a que par celles que l’on affecte d’avoir.]
One of the reasons so few people are to be found who seem sensible and pleasant in conversation is that almost everybody is thinking about what he wants to say himself rather than about answering clearly what is being said to him.
As the stamp of great minds is to suggest much in a few words, so, contrariwise, little minds have the gift of talking a great deal and saying nothing.
François VI, duc de La Rochefoucauld (1613-1680) French epigrammist, memoirist, noble
Réflexions ou sentences et maximes morales [Maxims], #142 (1665) [tr. Tancock (1959)]
(Source)
There are reproaches that compliment, and compliments that disparage.
The glory of great men must always be measured against the means they have used to acquire it.
François VI, duc de La Rochefoucauld (1613-1680) French epigrammist, memoirist, noble
Réflexions ou sentences et maximes morales [Maxims], #157 (1665-1678) [tr. Tancock (1959)]
Alt. trans.:
- "The fame of great men ought to be judged always by the means they used to acquire it."
- "The glory of a great man ought always to be estimated by the means used to acquire it."
Flattery is counterfeit money which, but for vanity, would have no circulation.
[La flatterie est une fausse monnaie qui n’a de cours que par notre vanité]
True bravery is shown by performing without witness what one might be capable of doing before all the world!
Fortunate people seldom mend their ways, for when good luck crowns their misdeeds with success they think it is because they are right.
Nothing is so contagious as an example, and our every really good or bad action inspires a similar one.
It is exceedingly clever to know how to hide your cleverness.
We try to make virtues out of the faults we have no wish to correct.
Self-interest sets in motion virtues and vices of all kinds.
Few men are sufficiently discerning to appreciate all the evil they do.
Absence diminishes mediocre passions and increases great ones, as the wind blows out candles and fans flames.
[L’absence diminue les médiocres passions, et augmente les grandes, comme le vent éteint les bougies et allume le feu.]
François VI, duc de La Rochefoucauld (1613-1680) French epigrammist, memoirist, noble
Réflexions ou sentences et maximes morales [Maxims], #276 (1665-1678)
Alt. trans.: "Absence lessens the minor passions and increases the great ones, as the wind douses a candle and kindles a fire."
(See DeBussy)
We often forgive those who bore us, but we cannot forgive those who find us boring.
[Nous pardonnons souvent à ceux qui nous ennuient, mais nous ne pouvons pardonner à ceux que nous ennuyons.]
Moderation has been declared a virtue so as to curb the ambition of the great and console lesser folk for their lack of fortune and merit.
Why is it that we have enough memory to recall the most trivial occurrences that have happened to us, but not enough memory to remind us how often we have told them to the same person?
[Pourquoi faut-il que nous ayons assez de mémoire pour retenir jusqu’aux moindres particularités de ce qui nous est arrivé, et que nous n’en ayons pas assez pour nous souvenir combien de fois nous les avons contées à une même personne?]
It is no tragedy to do ungrateful people favors, but it is unbearable to be indebted to a scoundrel.
[Ce n’est pas un grand malheur d’obliger des ingrats, mais c’en est un insupportable d’être obligé à un malhonnête homme.]
We own up to minor failings, but only so as to convince others that we have no major ones.
[Nous n’avouons de petits défauts que pour persuader que nous n’en avons pas de grands.]
Circumstances reveal us to others and still more to ourselves.
We rarely find that people have good sense unless they agree with us.
Mediocre minds dismiss anything which reaches beyond their own understanding.
We should often blush at our noblest deeds if the world were to see all their underlying motives.
Almost all our faults are more pardonable than the methods we resort to hide them.
[On n’a guère de défauts qui ne soient plus pardonnables que les moyens dont on se sert pour les cacher.]
Self-confidence adds more to conversation than wit.
We try to make virtues of those faults that we do not wish to correct.
[Nous essayons de nous faire honneur des défauts que nous ne voulons pas corriger.]
Some people’s faults are becoming, other people’s virtues prove drawbacks.
In affairs of importance a man should concentrate not so much on making opportunities as on taking advantages of those that arise.
Our enemies come nearer the truth in the opinions they form of us than we do in our opinion of ourselves.
[Nous essayons de nous faire honneur des défauts que nous ne voulons pas corriger.]
Quarrels would not last long if the fault were on one side only.
[Les querelles ne dureraient pas longtemps, si le tort n’était que d’un côté.]
François VI, duc de La Rochefoucauld (1613-1680) French epigrammist, memoirist, noble
Réflexions ou sentences et maximes morales [Maxims], #496 (1665-1678) [tr. Tancock (1959)]
Alt. trans.:
- "Quarrels would not last so long if the fault were only on one side."
- "Quarrels would not last long if the fault were only on one side."
How can we expect somebody else to keep our secret if we cannot keep it ourselves?
Self-confidence is at the root of most of our confidence in others.
To safeguard one’s health at the cost of too strict a diet is a tiresome illness indeed.