Francois De La Rochefoucauld
136 quotations
The only good imitations are those that poke fun at bad originals.
There is only one kind of love, but there are a thousand imitations.
Too great a hurry to discharge an obligation is a kind of ingratitude.
Those who are incapable of committing great crimes do not readily suspect them in others.
It's easier to be wise for others than for ourselves.
The virtues and vices are all put in motion by interest.
In jealousy there is more of self-love than love.
Live on doubts; it becomes madness or stops entirely as soon as we pass from doubt to certainty.
Jealously is always born with love but it does not die with it.
Jealousy contains more of self-love than of love.
Everyone complains of the badness of his memory, but nobody of his judgment.
If I advance, follow me! If I retreat, kill me! If I die, avenge me!
Nothing so much prevents our being natural as the desire to seem so.
To establish yourself in the world a person must do all they can to appear already established.
Quarrels would not last so long if the fault lay only on one side.
We are nearer loving those who hate us than those who love us more than we wish.
True love is like ghosts, which everybody talks about and few have seen.
We love those who admire us, but not those whom we admire.
What makes lovers never tire of one another is that they talk always about themselves.
It is with true love as it is with ghosts; everyone talks about it, but few have seen it.
If we are to judge of love by its consequences, it more nearly resembles hatred than friendship.
There are few people who are not ashamed of their love affairs when the infatuation is over.
The more one loves a mistress, the more one is ready to hate her.
Chance corrects us of many faults that reason would not know how to correct.
It is easier to know men in general, than men in particular.