Great souls are not those who have fewer passions and more virtues than others, but only those who have greater designs.
— Francois de La Rochefoucauld
We are nearer loving those who hate us than those who love us more than we wish.
There is a kind of elevation which does not depend on fortune; it is a certain air which distinguishes us, and seems to destine us for great things; it is a price which we imperceptibly set upon ourselves.
Neither the sun nor death can be looked at with a steady eye.
Silence is the safest course for any man to adopt who distrust himself.
If it were not for the company of fools, a witty man would often be greatly at a loss.
The reason why so few people are agreeable in conversation is that each is thinking more about what he intends to say than others are saying.
As one grows older, one becomes wiser and more foolish.
Funeral pomp is more for the vanity of the living than for the honor of the dead.
The word virtue is as useful to self-interest as the vices.
What is called generosity is usually only the vanity of giving; we enjoy the vanity more than the thing given.
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?
Virtue would go far if vanity did not keep it company.
Repentance is not so much remorse for what we have done as the fear of the consequences.
Flattery is a kind of bad money, to which our vanity gives us currency.
It is not enough to have great qualities; We should also have the management of them.
Nothing is so contagious as example; and we never do any great good or evil which does not produce its like.
What men have called friendship is only a social arrangement, a mutual adjustment of interests, an interchange of services given and received; it is, in sum, simply a business from which those involved propose to derive a steady profit for their own self-love.
If we are to judge of love by its consequences, it more nearly resembles hatred than friendship.
The sure mark of one born with noble qualities is being born without envy.
There are crimes which become innocent and even glorious through their splendor, number and excess.
We only confess our little faults to persuade people that we have no big ones.
If we had no faults of our own, we should not take so much pleasure in noticing those in others.
Old men are fond of giving good advice to console themselves for their inability to give bad examples.
We give advice, but we cannot give the wisdom to profit by it.
In love we often doubt what we most believe.
A true friend is the greatest of all blessings, and that which we take the least care of all to acquire.
However rare true love may be, it is less so than true friendship.
We only acknowledge small faults in order to make it appear that we are free from great ones.
There are very few people who are not ashamed of having been in love when they no longer love each other.
Mediocre minds usually dismiss anything which reaches beyond their own understanding.
Conceit causes more conversation than wit.
A wise man thinks it more advantageous not to join the battle than to win.
Confidence contributes more to conversation than wit.
In the misfortunes of our best friends we always find something not altogether displeasing to us.
Gracefulness is to the body what understanding is to the mind.
Decency is the least of all laws, but yet it is the law which is most strictly observed.
To achieve greatness one should live as if they will never die.
Usually we praise only to be praised.
We seldom find any person of good sense, except those who share our opinions.
Old age is a tyrant, who forbids, under pain of death, the pleasures of youth.
The one thing people are the most liberal with, is their advice.
One is never fortunate or as unfortunate as one imagines.
How can we expect another to keep our secret if we have been unable to keep it ourselves?
Perfect valour consists in doing without witnesses that which we would be capable of doing before everyone.
We always love those who admire us, but we do not always love those whom we admire.
The reason that lovers never weary each other is because they are always talking about themselves.
Jealousy lives upon doubts. It becomes madness or ceases entirely as soon as we pass from doubt to certainty.
All the passions make us commit faults; love makes us commit the most ridiculous ones.
The heart is forever making the head its fool.
