WIST Quotations

La Rochefoucauld, Francois -- Réflexions ou sentences et maximes morales [Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims], ¶192 (1665-1678) [tr. Kronenberger (1959)]

Dave — Mon, 25 May 2026 19:03:55 +0000

When our vices desert us, we flatter ourselves that we are deserting our vices.

[Quand les vices nous quittent, nous nous flattons de la créance que c’est nous qui les quittons.]

François VI, duc de La Rochefoucauld (1613-1680) French epigrammatist, memoirist, noble
Réflexions ou sentences et maximes morales [Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims], ¶192 (1665-1678) [tr. Kronenberger (1959)]
(Source)

Present in the 1st (1665) edition. In that version and the manuscript, the latter part read "... nous voulons nous flatter que c’est nous qui les quittons."

(Source (French)). Other translations:

When our Vices forsake us, we please our selves with an Opinion, that we parted first, and left them.
[tr. Stanhope (1694), ¶193]

When our vices have left us, we flatter ourselves that we have left them.
[pub. Donaldson (1783), ¶440]

When our Vices have left us, we flatter ourselves that we have left them.
[ed. Lepoittevin-Lacroix (1797), ¶184]

When our vices leave us, we flatter ourselves that we have left them.
[ed. Carvill (1835), ¶367]

When our vices quit us we flatter ourselves with the belief that it is we who quit them.
[ed. Gowens (1851), ¶201]

When our vices leave us we flatter ourselves with the idea we have left them.
[tr. Bund/Friswell (1871), ¶192]

We flatter ourselves that we quit our vices; in reality our vices quit us.
[tr. Heard (1917), ¶197]

When our vices abandon us, we flatter ourselves that it is we who abandon them.
[tr. Stevens (1939), ¶192]

When our vices depart from us, we flatter ourselves that it is we who have gotten rid of them.
[tr. FitzGibbon (1957), ¶192]

When the vices give us up we flatter ourselves that we are giving up them.
[tr. Tancock (1959), ¶192]

When our vices leave us, we flatter ourselves with the belief that it is we who have left them.
[tr. Whichello (2016) ¶192]

Joubert, Joseph -- Pensées [Thoughts], ch. 5 “Des Passions et des Affections de l’Âme [On the Soul], ¶ 29 (1850 ed.) [tr. Calvert (1866)]

Dave — Tue, 08 Apr 2025 21:57:08 +0000

It is always our inabilities that irritate us.

[Ce sont toujours nos impuissances qui nous irritent.]

Joseph Joubert (1754-1824) French moralist, philosopher, essayist, poet
Pensées [Thoughts], ch. 5 “Des Passions et des Affections de l’Âme [On the Soul], ¶ 29 (1850 ed.) [tr. Calvert (1866)]
(Source)

(Source (French)). Alternate translations:

Our worries always come from our weaknesses.
[tr. Attwell (1896), ¶ 65]

It is always our incapacities that irritate us.
[tr. Lyttelton (1899), ch. 4, ¶ 19]

It is always our inabilities that vex us.
[tr. Collins (1928), ch. 5]

Bierce, Ambrose -- “Age,” The Cynic’s Word Book (1906)

Dave — Tue, 19 Dec 2023 20:35:20 +0000

AGE, n. That period of life in which we compound for the vices that we still cherish by reviling those that we have no longer the enterprise to commit.

Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914?) American writer and journalist
“Age,” The Cynic’s Word Book (1906)
(Source)

Included in The Devil's Dictionary (1911).

Originally published in the "Devil's Dictionary" column in the San Francisco Wasp (1881-02-12).

Broun, Heywood -- “Emma’s Homecoming,” It Seems to Me: 1925-1935 (1935)

Dave — Thu, 22 Jun 2017 03:02:41 +0000

Hell is paved with great granite blocks hewn from the hearts of those who said, “I can do no other.”

Heywood Broun (1888-1939) American journalist, author
“Emma’s Homecoming,” It Seems to Me: 1925-1935 (1935)
(Source)

Vauvenargues, Luc de -- Reflections and Maxims [Réflexions et maximes], #562 [tr. Stevens] (1746)

Dave — Wed, 14 Jun 2017 14:50:08 +0000

The greatest evil which fortune can inflict on men is to endow them with small talents and great ambition.

Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues (1715-1747) French moralist, essayist, soldier
Reflections and Maxims [Réflexions et maximes], #562 [tr. Stevens] (1746)
(Source)