WIST Quotations

La Rochefoucauld, Francois -- Réflexions ou sentences et maximes morales [Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims], ¶199 (1665-1678) [tr. Tancock (1959)]

Dave — Sat, 30 Aug 2025 18:42:13 +0000

Desire to appear clever often prevents our becoming so.

[Le désir de paraître habile empêche souvent de le devenir.]

François VI, duc de La Rochefoucauld (1613-1680) French epigrammatist, memoirist, noble
Réflexions ou sentences et maximes morales [Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims], ¶199 (1665-1678) [tr. Tancock (1959)]
(Source)

Found in the 1st (1665) ed. In manuscript, it added:

... parce qu’on songe plus à le paroître aux autres qu’à être effectivement ce qu’il faut être. [... because we think more about appearing so to others than actually being what we must be.]

The theme of seeming/appearing runs all through La Rochefoucauld's maxims. See also ¶127, ¶134, ¶245, ¶431, ¶457.

(Source (French)). Other translations:

The desire to be thought a wise Man, oftentimes hinders ones coming to be really such.
[tr. Stanhope (1694), ¶200]

The desire of appearing to be persons of ability often prevents our being so.
[pub. Donaldson (1783), ¶1, ed. Lepoittevin-Lacroix (1797), ¶190]

Never are we made so ridiculous by the qualities we have, as by those we affect to have. An affectation of wisdom often prevents our becoming wise.
[ed. Carvill (1835), ¶19]

The desire of appearing clever often prevents our becoming so.
[ed. Gowens (1851), ¶208]

The desire to appear clever often prevents our being so.
[tr. Bund/Friswell (1871), ¶199; tr. Stevens (1939), ¶199]

The desire to appear clever often prevents a man from being so.
[tr. FitzGibbon (1957), ¶199]

The desire to seem clever often prevents our being so.
[tr. Kronenberger (1959), ¶199]

The desire to appear intelligent, often prevents us from actually becoming so.
[tr. Whichello (2016) ¶199]

Billings, Josh -- Everybody’s Friend, Or; Josh Billing’s Encyclopedia and Proverbial Philosophy of Wit and Humor, ch. 156 “Affurisms: Embers on the Harth” (1874)

Dave — Thu, 19 Jun 2025 15:37:07 +0000

“Happy as a king,” iz a libel on happiness, and on the king to.

[“Happy as a king,” is a libel on happiness, and on the king, too.]

Josh Billings (1818-1885) American humorist, aphorist [pseud. of Henry Wheeler Shaw]
Everybody’s Friend, Or; Josh Billing’s Encyclopedia and Proverbial Philosophy of Wit and Humor, ch. 156 “Affurisms: Embers on the Harth” (1874)
(Source)

Rothfuss, Patrick -- The Name of the Wind, ch. 92 “The Music That Plays” [Bast] (2007)

Dave — Thu, 06 Apr 2023 15:00:24 +0000

You see, there’s a fundamental connection between seeming and being. Every Fae child knows this, but you mortals never seem to see. We understand how dangerous a mask can be. We all become what we pretend to be.

Patrick Rothfuss (b. 1973) American author
The Name of the Wind, ch. 92 “The Music That Plays” [Bast] (2007)
(Source)

Cicero, Marcus Tullius -- Laelius De Amicitia [Laelius on Friendship], ch. 26 / sec. 98 (44 BC)

Dave — Mon, 08 Mar 2021 19:03:22 +0000

Few are those who wish to be endowed with virtue rather than to seem so.

[Virtute enim ipsa non tam multi praediti esse quam videri volunt.]

Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BC) Roman orator, statesman, philosopher
Laelius De Amicitia [Laelius on Friendship], ch. 26 / sec. 98 (44 BC)

Common translation. Alternates:

"For not so many desire to be endowed with virtue itself, as to seem to be so." [tr. Edmonds (1871)]
"For there are not so many possessed of virtue as there are that desire to seem virtuous." [tr. Peabody (1887)]
"For many wish not so much to be, as to seem to be, endowed with real virtue." [tr. Falconer (1923)]

Shakespeare, William -- Merchant of Venice, Act 2, sc. 7, l. 73ff [Morocco] (1597)

Dave — Fri, 01 Aug 2014 13:15:25 +0000

MOROCCO: All that glisters is not gold;
Often have you heard that told.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Merchant of Venice, Act 2, sc. 7, l. 73ff [Morocco] (1597)
(Source)

Usually modernized as "All that glitters is not gold."

See Herbert.

Hawthorne, Nathaniel -- The Scarlet Letter, ch. 17 (1850)

Dave — Fri, 13 Jun 2014 13:06:01 +0000

I have laughed in bitterness and agony of heart, at the contrast between what I seem and what I am!

Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864) American writer
The Scarlet Letter, ch. 17 (1850)