Being a blockhead is sometimes the best security against being cheated by a man of wit. – Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Though nature be ever so generous, yet can she not make a hero alone. Fortune must contribute her part too; and till both concur, the work cannot be perfected. – Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Philosophy finds it an easy matter to vanquish past and future evils, but the present are commonly too hard for it. – Francois de La Rochefoucauld
The principal point of cleverness is to know how to value things just as they deserve. – Francois de La Rochefoucauld
We may seem great in an employment below our worth, but we very often look little in one that is too big for us. – Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Jealousy lives upon doubts. It becomes madness or ceases entirely as soon as we pass from doubt to certainty. – Francois de La Rochefoucauld
We may sooner be brought to love them that hate us, than them that love us more than we would have them do. – Francois de La Rochefoucauld
The surest way to be deceived is to consider oneself cleverer than others. – Francois de La Rochefoucauld
We are nearer loving those who hate us than those who love us more than we wish. – Francois de La Rochefoucauld
The name and pretense of virtue is as serviceable to self-interest as are real vices. – Francois de La Rochefoucauld
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. – Francois de La Rochefoucauld
We are never so ridiculous through what we are as through what we pretend to be. – Francois de La Rochefoucauld
As it is the characteristic of great wits to say much in few words, so small wits seem to have the gift of speaking much and saying nothing. – Francois de La Rochefoucauld
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. – Francois de La Rochefoucauld
One can find women who have never had one love affair, but it is rare indeed to find any who have had only one. – Francois de La Rochefoucauld