There are very few people who are not ashamed of having been in love when they no longer love each other.
La Rochefoucauld Quotations
We found 105 matching quotations.
It is often merely for an excuse that we say things are impossible.
We all have strength enough to endure the misfortunes of others.
One is never as fortunate or as unfortunate as one thinks.
Pride does not wish to owe and vanity does not wish to pay.
Vanity makes us do more things against inclination than reason.
Absence diminishes small loves and increases great ones, as the wind blows out the candle and blow up the bonfire.
The defects of the understanding, like those of the face, grow worse as we grow old.
When we are unable to find tranquility within ourselves, it is useless to seek it elsewhere.
We often do good in order that we may do evil with impunity.
Before we set our hearts too much upon anything, let us examine how happy those are who already possess it.
Quarrels would not last long if the fault were only on one side.
What seems to be generosity is often no more than disguised ambition, which overlooks a small interest in order to secure a great one.
It is a great ability to be able to conceal one's ability.
The greatest of all gifts is the power to estimate things at their true worth.
We often forgive those who bore us, but we cannot forgive those whom we bore.
The man who lives free from folly is not so wise as he thinks.
However rare true love may be, it is less so than true friendship.
Some disguised deceits counterfeit truth so perfectly that not to be taken in by them would be an error of judgment.
We are never so happy or unhappy as we think.
Our enemies come nearer the truth in the opinions they form of us than we do in our opinion of ourselves.
We always like those who admire us; we do not always like those whom we admire.
Philosophy triumphs easily over past evils and future evils but present evils triumph over it.
When we are in love we often doubt that which we most believe.
Absence lessens the minor passions and increases the great ones, as the wind douses a candle and kindles a fire.
The reason why so few people are agreeable in conversation is that each is thinking more about what he intends to say than about what others are saying, and we never listen when we are eager to speak.
One forgives to the degree that one loves.
Nothing so much prevents our being natural as the desire to seem so.
A true friend is the greatest of all blessings, and the one which we take the least thought to acquire.
If we are to judge of love by the consequences, it more nearly resembles hatred than friendship.
The reason that lovers never weary each other is because they are always talking about themselves.
Good advice is something a man gives when he is too old to set a bad example.
Before we set our hearts too much on anything, let us examine how happy are those who already possess it.
Preserving health by too severe a rule is a worrisome malady.
He who lives without folly isn't so wise as he thinks.
The most dangerous folly of old people who were once attractive is to forget that they are not so any longer.
We are more interested in making others believe we are happy than in trying to be happy ourselves.
Philosophy triumphs easily over past evils and future evils; but present evils triumph over it.
Jealousy feeds upon suspicion, and it turns into fury or it ends as soon as we pass from suspicion to certainty.
We should manage our fortunes as we do our health - enjoy it when good, be patient when it is bad, and never apply violent remedies except in an extreme necessity.
To establish oneself in the world, one has to do all one can to appear established.
Minds of moderate caliber ordinarily condemn everything which is beyond their range.
Conceit causes more conversation than wit.
If we resist our passions, it is more from their weakness than from our strength.
In jealousy there is more of self-love, than of love to another.
The surest way to be deceived is to think oneself cleverer than the others.
Hope and fear are inseparable. There is no hope without fear, nor any fear without hope.
If it were not for the company of fools, a witty man would often be greatly at a loss.
The pleasure of love is in loving.
Absence extinguishes small passions and increases great ones, as the wind blows out a candle, and blows in a fire.
Gratitude is merely the secret hope of further favors.
Everyone complains of his memory, none of his judgment.
We should often be ashamed of our finest actions if the world understood our motives.
Small minds are much distressed by little things. Great minds see them all but are not upset by them.
We think very few people sensible, except those who are of our opinion.
The confidence which we have in ourselves gives birth to much of that which we have in others.
To be deceived by our enemies or betrayed by our friends in insupportable; yet by ourselves we are often content to be so treated.
All the passions make us commit faults love makes us commit the most ridiculous ones.
We are never so ridiculous through what we are as through what we pretend to be.
Why is it that our memory is good enough to retain the least triviality that happens to us, and yet not good enough to recollect how often we have told it to the same person?
Our minds are lazier than our bodies.
The pleasure of love is in the loving and there is more joy in the passion one feels than in that which one inspires.
Few things are impracticable in themselves; and it is for want of application, rather than of means, that men fail to succeed.
It is the habit of mediocre minds to condemn all that is beyond their grasp.
He who lives without folly is not so wise as he imagines.
Those who give too much attention to trifling things become generally incapable of great things.
Nothing is less sincere than our mode of asking and giving advice. He who asks seems to have a deference for the opinion of his friend, while he only aims to get approval of his own and make his friend responsible for his action. And he who gives advice repays the confidence supposed to be placed in him by a seemingly disinterested zeal, while he seldom means anything by his advice but his own interest or reputation.
Old people like to give good advice, as solace for no longer being able to provide bad examples.
Our repentance is not so much regret for the ill we have done as fear of the ill that may happen to us in consequence.
The sort of liveliness which increases with age is not far distant from madness.
We seldom attribute common sense except to those who agree with us.
To listen closely and reply well is the highest perfection we are able to attain in the art of conversation.
We rarely think that people have good sense unless they agree with us.
Everyone complains of his lack of memory, but nobody of his want of judgment.
We always like those who admire us we do not always like those whom we admire.
The man whom no one pleases is much more unhappy than the man who pleases no one.
The mind cannot long act the role of the heart.
To eat is a necessity, but to eat intelligently is an art.
How can we expect another to keep our secret, if we cannot keep it ourself
Perfect valor is to behave, without witnesses, as one would act were all the world watching.
We confess our little faults to persuade people that we have no large ones.
True love is like ghosts, which everybody talks about and few have seen.
If we had no faults of our own, we would not take so much pleasure in noticing those of others.
We would frequently be ashamed of our good deeds if people saw all of the motives that produced them.
When we are unable to find tranquillity within ourselves, it is useless to seek it elsewhere.
A true friend is the most precious of all possessions and the one we take the least thought about acquiring.
The height of cleverness is to be able to conceal it.
Confidence contributes more to conversation than wit.
We promise according to our hopes, and perform according to our fears.
Few are agreeable in conversation, because each thinks of what he intends to say than of what others are saying, and listens no more when he himself has a chance to speak.
A true friend is the greatest of all blessings, and that which we take the least care of all to acquire.
There are very few women in society whose virtue outlasts their beauty.
Were we faultless, we would not derive such satisfaction from remarking the faults of others.
Not all those who know their minds know their hearts as well.
The truest mark of being born with great qualities, is being born without envy.
People would never fall in love if they had not heard love talked about.
There is no disguise which can hide love for long where it exists, or simulate it where it does not.
If we judge of love by its usual effects, it resembles hatred more than friendship.
No persons are more frequently wrong, than those who will not admit they are wrong.
It is with true love as it is with ghosts everyone talks about it, but few have seen it.
For most men the love of justice is only the fear of suffering injustice.
We rarely think people have good sense unless they agree with us.
Hypocrisy is the homage which vice pays to virtue.
We are all strong enough to endure the misfortunes of others.
The glory of great men should always be measured by the means they have used to acquire it.