It is as easy to deceive oneself without perceiving it, as it is difficult to deceive others without their perceiving it.
[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.]François VI, duc de La Rochefoucauld (1613-1680) French epigrammatist, memoirist, noble
Réflexions ou sentences et maximes morales [Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims], ¶115 (1665-1678) [ed. Gowens (1851), ¶118]
(Source)
Present in 1st edition (1665). (Source (French)). Alternate translations:It is as easie for a man to be self-deceiv'd, without being sensible of it, as it is hard to deceive others, without their perceiving it.
[tr. Davies (1669), ¶18]It is as easie a matter to deceive a Mans self, and not be sensible of it, as it is hard to impose upon others, and yet for them not to be sensible of it.
[tr. Stanhope (1694), ¶116]It is as easy to deceive ourselves without our perceivng it, as it is difficult to deceive others without their perceiving it.
[pub. Donaldson (1783), ¶90; ed. Lepoittevin-Lacroix (1797), ¶112]It is as easy to deceive ourselves; without perceiving it, as it is difficult to deceive others without being perceived.
[ed. Carvill (1835), ¶78]It is as easy unwittingly to deceive oneself as to deceive others.
[tr. Bund/Friswell (1871), ¶115]It is as easy to deceive ourselves without realizing it, as it is hard to avoid detection in our deception of others.
[tr. Heard (1917), ¶115]It is as easy to delude ourselves unknowingly, as it is difficult to delude others without their knowing it.
[tr. Stevens (1939), ¶115]It is as easy to deceive oneself without noticing it as it is difficult to deceive others without their realizing the deception.
[tr. FitzGibbon (1957), ¶115]It is as easy to deceive ourselves without knowing it as it is hard to deceive others without their finding it out.
[tr. Kronenberger (1959), ¶115]It is as easy to deceive ourselves without noticing it as it is hard to deceive others without their noticing.
[tr. Tancock (1959), ¶115]It is as easy to deceive ourselves without our perceiving it, as it is difficult to deceive others without their perceiving it.
[tr. Whichello (2016) ¶115]
