Francois de La Rochefoucauld

Some accidents there are in life that a little folly is necessary to help us out of.

There are very few things impossible in themselves; and we do not want means to conquer difficulties so much as application and resolution in the use of means.

Weakness of character is the only defect which cannot be amended.

Our concern for the loss of our friends is not always from a sense of their worth, but rather of our own need of them and that we have lost some who had a good opinion of us.

We are never so ridiculous through what we are as through what we pretend to be.

A refusal of praise is a desire to be praised twice.

It is easier to be wise for others than for ourselves.

The one thing people are the most liberal with, is their advice.

The reason that lovers never weary each other is because they are always talking about themselves.

The sure way to be cheated is to think one's self more cunning than others.

Most people know no other way of judging men's worth but by the vogue they are in, or the fortunes they have met with.

On neither the sun, nor death, can a man look fixedly.

He is not to pass for a man of reason who stumbles upon reason by chance but he who knows it and can judge it and has a true taste for it.

Flattery is a kind of bad money, to which our vanity gives us currency.

In the misfortunes of our best friends we always find something not altogether displeasing to us.

Our virtues are often, in reality, no better than vices disguised.

When a man is in love, he doubts, very often, what he most firmly believes.

The desire to seem clever often keeps us from being so.

The passions are the only orators which always persuade.

Quarrels would not last long if the fault was only on one side.