Quotes François de La Rochefoucauld - page 5
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The measure of great men should always be measured by the means they have used to acquire it.
Virtue is the habit of acting according to wisdom. GOTTFRIED WILHELM LEIBNIZ, "Felicity", Leibniz: Political Writings Virtue is harder to be got than knowledge of the world; and, if lost in a young man, is seldom recovered. JOHN LOCKE, Some Thoughts Concerning Education However wicked men may be, they do not dare openly to appear the enemies of virtue, and when they desire to persecute her they either pretend to believe her false or attribute crimes to her.
“Confidence contributes more to conversation than wit.”
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Satire is at once the most agreeable and most dangerous of mental qualities. It always pleases when it is refined, but we always fear those who use it too much; yet satire should be allowed when unmixed with spite, and when the person satirized can join in the satire.
Our desires always disappoint us; for though we meet with something that gives us satisfaction, yet it never thoroughly answers our expectation. [However disappointment can always be removed if we remember it could have turned out worse.]
Self-love increases or diminishes for us the good qualities of our friends, in proportion to the satisfaction we feel with them; and we judge of their merit by the manner in which they act towards us.
Nothing ought in reason to mortify our self-satisfaction more that the considering that we condemn at one time what we highly approve and commend at another.
Consolation for unhappiness can often be found in a certain satisfaction we get from looking unhappy.
Nothing should lessen our satisfaction with ourselves as much as when we notice that we disapprove of something at one time that we approve of at another time.
Were we faultless, we would not derive such satisfaction from remarking the faults of others.
A person well satisfied with themselves is seldom satisfied with others, and others, rarely are with them.
It is a common fault never to be satisfied with our fortune, nor dissatisfied with our understanding.
Perhaps being old is having lighted rooms inside your head, and people in them, acting. People you know, yet can't quite name.
Men are inconsolable concerning the treachery of their friends or the deceptions of their enemies; and yet they are often very highly satisfied to be both deceived and betrayed by their own selves.
Jealousy is in some measure just and reasonable, since it merely aims at keeping something that belongs to us or we think belongsto us, whereas envy is a frenzy that cannot bear anything that belongs to others.
Selfishness is the grand moving principle of nine-tenths of our actions.
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It is easier to rule others than to keep from being ruled oneself.
