"Were we not proud ourselves, we should not complain of the pride of others."
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Francois de La Rochefoucauld quotes (page 49 of 55)
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"We have not strength enough to follow our reason so far as it would carry us."
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"We do not lack strength so much as the will to use it; and very often our imagining that things are impossible is nothing but an excuse of our own contriving, to reconcile ourselves to our own idleness."
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"Fearlessness is a more than ordinary strength of mind, which raises the soul above the troubles, disorders, and emotions which theprospect of great dangers are used to produce. And by this inward strength it is that heroes preserve themselves in a calm and quiet state, and enjoy a presence of mind and the free use of their reason in the midst of those terrible accidents that amaze and confound other people."
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"The courage of a great many men, and the virtue of a great many women, are the effect of vanity, shame, and especially a suitabletemperament."
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"We are much mistaken if we think that men are always brave from a principle of valor, or women chaste from a principle of modesty."
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"The most ingenious men continually pretend to condemn tricking--but this is often done that they may use it more conveniently themselves, when some great occasion or interest offers itself to them."
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"The cunningest dissimulation is when a man pretends to be caught in the traps others set for him; and a man is never so easily over-reached as when he is contriving to over-reach others."
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"Moderation is represented as a virtue in order to restrain the ambition of great men, and to console those of a meaner condition in their lesser merit and fortune."
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"Love is one and the same in the original; but there are a thousand different copies of it."
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"Love has its name borrowed by a great number of dealings and affairs that are attributed to it--in which it has no greater part than the Doge in what is done at Venice."
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"Constancy in love is of two sorts: One is the effect of new excellencies that are always presenting themselves afresh, and attractour affections continually; the other is only from a point of honor, and a taking of pride not to change."
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"Constancy in love is a perpetual inconstancy which fixes our hearts successively to all the qualities of the person loved--sometimes admiring one and sometimes another above all the rest--so that this constancy roves as far as it can, and is no better than inconstancy, confined within the compass of one person."
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"A man seldom finds people unthankful, as long as he remains in a condition of benefiting them further."
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"The applause we give those who are new to society often proceeds from a secret envying of those already established."
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"Our repentances are generally not so much a concern and remorse for the harm we have done, as a fear of the harm we may have brought upon ourselves."
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"No one thinks fortune so blind as those she has been least kind to."
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"A readiness to believe ill of others, before we have duly examined it, is the effect of laziness and pride. We are eager to find aculprit, and loath to give ourselves the trouble of examining the crime."
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"Affected simplicity is a subtle imposture."
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"Some men are like ballads, that are in everyone's mouth a little while."
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