"The passions often engender their contraries."
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Francois de La Rochefoucauld quotes (page 26 of 55)
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"Tis a sort of coquetry to boast that we never coquet."
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"Avarice is more directly opposed to thrift than generosity is."
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"Every one complains of a poor memory, no one of a weak judgment."
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"Luxury and excessive refinement are sure forerunners of the decadence of states, because when all individuals seek their own interests they neglect the public weal."
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"We sometimes think that we hate flattery, but we only hate the manner in which it is done. [Fr., On croit quelquefoir hair la flatterie; maid on ne hait que a maniere de flatter.]"
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"There are no events so disastrous that adroit men do not draw some advantage from them, nor any so fortunate that the imprudent cannot turn to their own prejudice."
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"If we took as much pains to be what we ought, as we do to deceive others by disguising what we are; we might appear as we are, without being at the trouble of any disguise."
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"We judge so superficially of things, that common words and actions spoke and done in an agreeable manner, with some knowledge of what passes in the world, often succeed beyond the greatest ability."
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"The soul's maladies have their relapses like the body's. What we take for a cure is often just a momentary rally or a new form of the disease."
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"A lofty mind always thinks nobly, it easily creates vivid, agreeable, and natural fancies, places them in their best light, clothes them with all appropriate adornments, studies others' tastes, and clears away from its own thoughts all that is useless and disagreeable."
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"One should treat one's fate as one does one's health; enjoy it when it is good, be patient with it when it is poor, and never attempt any drastic cure save as an ultimate resort."
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"No man can love a second time the person whom he has once truly ceased to love."
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"There is something to be said for jealousy, because it only designs the preservation of some good which we either have or think wehave a right to. But envy is a raging madness that cannot bear the wealth or fortune of others."
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"There are few virtuous women who are not bored with their trade."
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"The surest way to be deceived is to consider oneself cleverer than others."
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"Funeral pomp is more for the vanity of the living than for the honor of the dead."
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"Self-love increases or diminishes for us the good qualities of our friends, in proportion to the satisfaction we feel with them; and we judge of their merit by the manner in which they act towards us."
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"In infants, levity is a prettiness; in men a shameful defect; but in old age, a monstrous folly."
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"The fondness or indifference that the philosophers expressed for life was merely a preference inspired by their self-love, and will no more bear reasoning upon than the relish of the palate or the choice of colors."
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