Quotations by:
La Rochefoucauld, Francois
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.]
We all have enough strength to endure the misfortunes of others.
[Nous avons tous assez de force pour supporter les maux d’autrui.]
Hypocrisy is the tribute that vice pays to virtue.
[L’hypocrisie est un hommage que le vice rend à la vertu.]
François VI, duc de La Rochefoucauld (1613-1680) French epigrammatist, memoirist, noble
Réflexions ou sentences et maximes morales [Maxims], ¶ 218 (1665-1678) [tr. FitzGibbon (1957)]
(Source)
(Source (French)). Alternate translations:
Hypocrisie is a Sort of Homage which Vice pays to Vertue.
[tr. Stanhope (1694), ¶ 219]
Hypocrisy is the homage that vice pays to virtue.
[pub. Donaldson (1783), ¶ 231; ed. Lepoittevin-Lacroix (1797), ¶ 209; ed. Carville (1835), ¶ 449; tr. Bund/Friswell (1871), ¶ 218]
Hypocrisy is the homage that vice renders to virtue.
[ed. Gowens (1851), ¶ 227]
Hypocrisy is a tribute vice pays to virtue.
[tr. Heard (1917), ¶ 223; tr Tancock (1959), ¶ 218]
Hypocrisy is a sort of homage which vice pays to virtue.
[tr. Stevens (1939), ¶ 218]
Hypocrisy is the homage vice offers to virtue.
[tr. Kronenberger (1959), ¶ 218]
Hypocrisy is a form of homage that vice pays to virtue.
[tr. Whichello (2016), ¶ 218]
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.]
It often happens that things come into the mind in a much more finished form than could have been achieved after much study.
‘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.]
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 epigrammatist, memoirist, noble
Réflexions ou sentences et maximes morales [Maxims], #142 (1665) [tr. Tancock (1959)]
(Source)
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 epigrammatist, 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]
Fortunate people seldom mend their ways, for when good luck crowns their misdeeds with success they think it is because they are right.
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 epigrammatist, 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.
The world oftener rewards the appearances of merit than merit itself.
François VI, duc de La Rochefoucauld (1613-1680) French epigrammatist, memoirist, noble
Réflexions ou sentences et maximes morales [Maxims], #312 (1665-1678)
(Source)
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.]
We rarely find that people have good sense unless they agree with us.
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.]
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.]
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 epigrammatist, 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."
Ambitious Men cheat themselves, when they fix upon any Ends for their Ambition; those Ends, when they are attained to, are converted into Means, subordinate to something farther.
François VI, duc de La Rochefoucauld (1613-1680) French epigrammatist, memoirist, noble
Réflexions ou sentences et maximes morales [Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims] (1665-1678) [tr. Stanhope (1694), Part 4, ¶65]
(Source)
Reported in multiple translations, but no modern ones. I cannot find the analog for it, the French original, or the "official" number.
Appears in the 1706 (Powell) ed. of Stanhope as ¶711.
Alternate translations:
The ambitious deceive themselves in proposing an end to their ambition; for that end, when attained, becomes a means.
[pub. Donaldson (1783), ¶32]
When the ambitious propose an end to their ambition, they deceive themselves; for, when attained, the end becomes a mean.
[ed. Carville (1835), ¶29]
And it is not always because of valour or chastity that men are valiant or women chaste.
[Et ce n’est pas toujours par valeur et par chasteté que les hommes sont vaillants et que les femmes sont chastes.]François VI, duc de La Rochefoucauld (1613-1680) French epigrammatist, memoirist, noble
Réflexions ou sentences et maximes morales [Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims], ¶1 (1665-1678) [tr. Tancock (1959)]
(Source)
Introduced in the 4th ed. (1665).
(Source (French)). Alternate translations:
It may be further affirmed, that Valour in Men, and Chastity in Women, two qualifications which make so much noise in the World, are the products of Vanity and Shame, and principally of their particular Temperaments.
[tr. Davies (1669), ¶94]
And we are much mistaken, if we think that Men are always stout from a principle of Valour, or Women chast from a principle of Modesty.
[tr. Stanhope (1694)]
It is not always from the principles of valour and chastity that men are valiant, and that women are chaste.
[pub. Donaldson (1783), ¶446]
It is not always from valor and from chastity that men are valiant, and that women are chaste.
[ed. Gowens (1851), ¶2]
It is not always from valour or from chastity that men are brave, and women chaste.
[tr. Bund/Friswell (1871)]
Men are not always brave because courageous, nor women chaste because virtuous.
[tr. Heard (1917)]
So it is not always courage that makes the hero, nor modesty the chaste woman.
[tr. Stevens (1939)]
It is not always valor which makes men valiant, nor chastity that renders women chaste.
[tr. FitzGibbon (1957)]
And it is not always through valor and chastity that men are valiant and women chaste.
[tr. Kronenberger (1959)]
It is not always because of bravery or chastity that men are brave, and women chaste.
[tr. Whichello (2016)]
Pride plays a greater part than kindness in our censure of a neighbor’s faults. We criticize faults less to correct them, than to prove that we do not possess them.
[L’orgueil a plus de part que la bonté aux remontrances que nous faisons à ceux qui commettent des fautes; et nous ne les reprenons pas tant pour les en corriger que pour leur persuader que nous en sommes exempts.]
François VI, duc de La Rochefoucauld (1613-1680) French epigrammatist, memoirist, noble
Réflexions ou sentences et maximes morales [Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims], ¶37 (1665-1678) [tr. Heard (1917)]
(Source)
Present from the first edition. (Source (French)). Alternate translations:
We are liberal of our remonstrances and reprehensions towards those, whom we think guilty of miscarriages; but we therein betray more pride, than charity. Our reproving them does not so much proceed from any desire in us of their reformation, as from an insinuation that we our selves are not chargeable with the like faults.
[tr. Davies (1669), ¶142]
Pride hath a greater share than Goodness in the reproofs we give other people for their faults; and we chide them, not so much with a design to mend them, as to make them believe that we ourselves are not guilty of them.
[tr. Stanhope (1694), ¶38]
Pride is more concerned than benevolence in our remonstrances to persons guilty of faults; and we reprove them not so much with a design to correct, as to make them believe that we ourselves are free from such failings.
[pub. Donaldson (1783), ¶349; ed. Lepoittevin-Lacroix (1797), ¶37]
In our reprehensions, pride has a greater share than good nature. We reprove, not so much in order to correct, as to intimate that we hold ourselves free from such failings.
[ed. Carville (1835), ¶309]
Pride has a greater share than goodness of heart in the remonstrances we make to those who are guilty of faults; we reprove not so much with a view to correct them as to persuade them that we are exempt from those faults ourselves.
[ed. Gowens (1851), ¶38]
Pride has a larger part than goodness in our remonstrances with those who commit faults, and we reprove them not so much to correct as to persuade them that we ourselves are free from faults.
[tr. Bund/Friswell (1871), ¶37]
Pride, rather than virtue, makes us reprove those who have done wrong; our reproaches are not so much intended to improve the evil-doer, as to show him that we are quite free of his taint.
[tr. FitzGibbon (1957), ¶37]
Pride plays a greater part than kindness in our remonstrating with those who make mistakes; and we point out their faults, less to correct them than to indicate they are not ours.
[tr. Kronenberger (1959), ¶37]
Pride plays a greater part than kindness in the reprimands we address to wrongdoers; we reprove them not so much to reform them as to make them believe that we are free from their faults.
[tr. Tancock (1959), ¶37]
Pride shares a greater part than the goodness of our hearts in the reprimands we give to those who commit faults; and we do not reprove so much in order to correct them, as in order to persuade them that we are ourselves exempt from those faults.
[tr. Whichello (2016), ¶37]
Philosophy easily triumphs over past ills and ills to come, but present ills triumph over philosophy.
[La philosophie triomphe aisément des maux passés et des maux à venir; mais les maux présents triomphent d’elle.]
François VI, duc de La Rochefoucauld (1613-1680) French epigrammatist, memoirist, noble
Réflexions ou sentences et maximes morales [Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims], ¶22 (1665-1678) [tr Tancock (1959)]
(Source)
(Source (French)). French variants:
La philosophie triomphe aisément des maux passés et de ceux qu’un ne sont pas prêts d’arriver; mais les maux présents triomphent d'elle.
(1665)]
La philosophie ne fait des merveilles que contre les maux passés ou contre ceux qui ne sont pas prêts d’arriver, mais elle n’a pas grande vertu contre les maux présents.
[Manuscript]
Alternate English translations:
Philosophy may easily triumph over Evils past, as also over those not yet ready to assault a man; but the present triumph over it.
[tr. Davies (1669), ¶87]
Philosophy finds it an easie matter to vanquish past and future Evils, but the present are commonly too hard for it.
[tr. Stanhope (1694), ¶23]
Philosophy easily triumphs over past and future ills; but present ills triumph over philosophy.
[pub. Donaldson (1783), "Ills" ¶242]
Philosophy easily triumphs over ills both past and future; but present ills triumph over philosophy.
[ed. Carville (1835), "Ills" ¶211]
Philosophy easily triumphs over past and future ills: but religion only triumphs over the present ones.
[ed. Carville (1835), "Philosophers" ¶303]
Philosophy triumphs easily over past, and over future evils, but present evils triumph over philosophy.
[ed. Gowens (1851), ¶23]
Philosophy triumphs easily over past evils and future evils; but present evils triumph over it.
[tr. Bund/Friswell (1871)]
Philosophy easily masters past and future ills, but the sorrow of the moment is the master of philosophy.
[tr. Heard (1917)]
Philosophy easily conquers both past and future misfortunes, but is conquered by the misfortunes of the moment.
[tr. Stevens (1939)]
Philosophy can easily triumph over past misfortunes and over those that lie ahead: but the misfortunes of the present will triumph over our philosophy.
[tr. FitzGibbon (1957)]
Philosophy triumphs with ease over misfortunes past and to come, but present misfortunes triumph over it.
[tr. Kronenberger (1959)]
Philosophy triumphs easily over past and future evils; but present evils triumph over it.
[tr. Whichello (2016)]
It takes a clever man to hide his cleverness.
[C’est une grande habileté que de savoir cacher son habileté.]
François VI, duc de La Rochefoucauld (1613-1680) French epigrammatist, memoirist, noble
Réflexions ou sentences et maximes morales [Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims], ¶245 (1678) [tr. Heard (1917), ¶253]
(Source)
In the 1665 edition, this read: Le plus grand art d’un habile homme est celui de savoir cacher son habileté.
(Source (French)). Alternate translations:
It is a Great Act of Wisdom to be able to Conceal one's being Wise.
[tr. Stanhope (1694), ¶246]
It requires no small degree of ability to know when to conceal it.
[pub. Donaldson (1783), "Ability," ¶4]
It is a great ability to be able to conceal one's ability.
[ed. Gowens (1851), ¶257]
There is great ability in knowing how to conceal one's ability.
[tr. Bund/Friswell (1871), ¶245]
It is the height of art to conceal art.
[tr. Stevens (1939), ¶245]
A very clever man will know how to hide his cleverness.
[tr. FitzGibbon (1957), ¶245]
It is exceedingly clever to know how to hide your cleverness.
[tr. Kronenberger (1959), ¶245]
To conceal ingenuity is ingenuity indeed.
[tr. Tancock (1959), ¶245]
It is great cleverness to know how to hide our cleverness.
[tr. Whichello (2016), ¶245]
Pure Valour, if there were any such thing, would consist in the doing of that without witnesses, which it were able to do, if all the world were to be spectators thereof.
[La pure valeur (s’il y en avait) serait de faire sans témoins ce qu’on est capable de faire devant le monde.]
François VI, duc de La Rochefoucauld (1613-1680) French epigrammatist, memoirist, noble
Réflexions ou sentences et maximes morales [Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims], ¶216 (1665-1678) [tr. Davies (1669), ¶97]
(Source)
(Source (French, 1665 ed., ¶229)). In the final edition (1678, ¶216), the original French had been modified to:
La parfaite valeur est de faire sans témoins ce qu’on seroit capable de faire devant tout le monde.
Alternate translations:
True Valour would do all that, when alone, that it could do, if all the World were by.
[tr. Stanhope (1694), ¶217]
Perfect valour consists in doing without witnesses all we should be capable of doing before the whole world.
[pub. Donaldson (1783), ¶431]
Perfect valour consists in doing, without witness, all that we should be capable of doing before the whole world.
[ed. Carville (1835), ¶367]
Perfect valor is to do unwitnessed what we should be capable of doing before all the world.
[ed. Gowens (1851), ¶225]
Perfect valour is to do without witnesses what one would do before all the world.
[tr. Bund/Friswell (1871)]
Perfect valor accomplishes without witnesses what anyone could do before the eyes of the world.
[tr. Heard (1917), ¶221]
Perfect courage consists in doing unobserved what what we could do in the eyes of the world.
[tr. Stevens (1939)]
Perfect valour is to behave, without witnesses, as one would act were all the world watching.
[tr. FitzGibbon (1957)]
Perfect courage means doing unwitnessed what we would be capable of with the world looking on.
[tr. Kronenberger (1959)]
Perfect valour consists in doing without witnesses what one would be capable of doing before the world at large.
[tr Tancock (1959)]
Perfect courage is to do without witnesses what one would do before all the world.
[tr. Whichello (2016)]
Perfect courage is to do without witnesses what one would be capable of doing with the world looking on.
[Source]
Our virtues are usually only vices in disguise.
[Nos vertus ne sont le plus souvent que des vices déguisés]
François VI, duc de La Rochefoucauld (1613-1680) French epigrammatist, memoirist, noble
Réflexions ou sentences et maximes morales [Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims], Epigraph (1675 ed.) [tr. Tancock (1959)]
(Source)
Added as an epigraph to the entire work in the 4th (1675) edition. A common theme in La Rochefoucauld's work, and variations of this maxim (and related thoughts) had been in the preceding editions and even this and later (see also ¶442).
(Source (French)). Alternate translations:
Our Vertues are oftentimes in Reality no better than Vices disguised.
[tr. Stanhope (1694)]
Our virtues are most frequently but vices disguised.
[tr. Bund/Friswell (1871)]
Our virtues are mostly but vices in disguise.
[tr. FitzGibbon (1957)]
Our virtues, most often, are only vices disguised.
[tr. Whichello (2016)]