François de La Rochefoucauld may refer to:
We have more ability than will power, and it is often an excuse to ourselves that we imagine that things are impossible.
Few are sufficiently wise to prefer censure which is useful to praise which is treacherous.
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?
We should wish for few things with eagerness, if we perfectly knew the nature of that which was the object of our desire.
Confidence always pleases those who receive it. It is a tribute we pay to their merit, a deposit we commit to their trust, a pledge that gives them a claim upon us, a kind of dependence to which we voluntarily submit.
Nothing hinders a thing from being natural so much as the straining ourselves to make it seem so.
If you cannot find peace in yourself, it is useless to look for it elsewhere.
We may seem great in an employment below our worth, but we very often look little in one that is too big for us.
There is no praise we have not lavished upon prudence; and yet she cannot assure to us the most trifling event.
Self-interest speaks all manner of tongues and plays all manner of parts, even that of disinterestedness.
Gratitude is merely the secret hope of further favors.
There are a great many simpletons who know themselves to be so, and who make a very cunning use of their own simplicity.
To be a great man it is necessary to turn to account all opportunities.
Absence cools moderate passions, and inflames violent ones; just as the wind blows out candles, but kindles fires.
Love often leads on to ambition, but seldom does one return from ambition to love.
The happiness and misery of men depend no less on temper than fortune.
True eloquence consists in saying all that should be said, and that only.
Humility is often a false front we employ to gain power over others.
Our actions seem to have their lucky and unlucky stars, to which a great part of that blame and that commendation is due which is given to the actions themselves.
The gratitude of most men is but a secret desire of receiving greater benefits.