Fran�ois, Duque de La Rochefoucauld

France
15 Sep 1613 // 17 Mar 1680
Writer, Moralist

Quotes

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It takes nearly as much ability to know how to profit by good advice as to know how to act for one's self
It is with true love as it is with ghosts; everyone talks about it, but few have seen it
It is not enough to have great qualities; We should also have the management of them
It is great folly to wish to be wise all alone
In the human heart new passions are forever being born; the overthrow of one almost always means the rise of another
In love we often doubt what we most believe
In all professions each affects a look and an exterior to appear what he wishes the world to believe that he is. Thus we may say that the whole world is made up of appearances
If we had no faults of our own, we should not take so much pleasure in noticing those in others
If we are to judge of love by its consequences, it more nearly resembles hatred than friendship
I have always been an admirer. I regard the gift of admiration as indispensable if one is to amount to something; I don't know where I would be without it
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On Anger: "For every minute you remain angry, you give up sixty seconds of peace of mind."
Essays
On Destiny: "Our destiny exercises its influence over us even when, as yet, we have not learned its nature: it is our future that lays down the law of our today."
Human, All Too Human
On Friendship: "A crowd is not company; and faces are but a gallery of pictures; and talk but a tinkling cymbal, where there is no love."
Essays